Anna's Family Matters
by DarkDamson
Summary: Nick & Hank investigate a murder. But the dead man has Liliana's brother's face, and the evidence that points at the new lowan king is a lie. - Sequel to Anna and the Prince. Established Renard/OC relationship. Lots of Renard, Nick and Hank, plus some Wu.
1. A Brother's Murder

Anna's Family Matters

Chapter 1 - A Brother's Murder

Liliana sat on the safety wall around the flat roof of a four-story building in downtown Portland at midnight, watching, with all eight eyes open. Flashing blue and red lights flickered, staining the clouds above her. Below her, in the alley between buildings, cameras flashed. People in uniforms surrounded a line of yellow tape keeping "unauthorized" people out of the alley. Liliana recognized Officer Wu as he waved in two familiar detectives and briefed them on the situation.

Detective Nick Burkhardt, who normally moved like a hunting cat, had a stiffness to his walk. Sleeping on his couch did not agree with him.

Detective Hank, for once, looked rested and relaxed, better than he had in weeks. Now that his Coyotl friend had helped Nick ease Hank into the truth of the wesen world, the dark detective no longer feared the shadows in his closet or that his own mind was betraying him. Hank had adapted to the new state of the world with remarkable ease.

Detective Hank was a brave man. Hank did not fear that the world held monsters. He had been a homicide detective long enough to already know that this was so. Hank had been terrified that he might go mad, and become a monster. Knowing that what he had seen was real, that he could still depend on his own senses, had given the detective tremendous peace of mind.

Liliana spared a small part of her mind that wasn't still reeling in shock to be happy for the detective. His world had become understandable again. Hers had just gone mad.

The center of all the activity was a dead man. He lay in the alley, face staring sightlessly at the cloudy night sky, throat ripped by what would appear to be an animal to human eyes. Her two detectives would both now recognize it for what it was, the kill of one of the fiercer varieties of wesen.

It wasn't the manner of the man's death that so deeply disturbed Liliana. It was the face, frozen in a moment of agony. She knew that face. But the man the face belonged to could not possibly be alive, or to be more accurate, he could not be recently, brutally dead. It wasn't possible.

Nick and Hank investigated the scene of the crime. They found a watch, dropped beside the body, a bloody scrap of clothing clutched in the victim's hand, a pair of broken glasses with a clear fingerprint on one lens. They thought it would be easy to catch this killer. So much evidence lay there to be found.

They were wrong. The evidence was a lie.

Liliana sent Nick a text. "We need to talk. Look up."

Nick reached for his back pocket as his phone vibrated. He looked down at the text, then up.

Liliana waved at him. From her vantage point directly above the murder scene, she suspected he would know what she wanted to talk about.

Liliana used her second and fourth eyes to watch Nick and Hank walk across the gravel of the flat roof toward her. She didn't bother to turn around. It just seemed like too much effort. Her soul felt like lead weights making all of her actions seem like too much bother.

Hank saw who it was and whispered to Nick. "Is she…?"

Nick nodded.

"Yes, Detective Hank, I am wesen," Liliana said.

Hank blinked. They were still several feet from her and her back was turned to them. "How …?"

"Do you not remember the sign above my door? Anna Sees All." Liliana found the unfamiliar taste of irony in her own voice. She always said exactly what she meant. But this time, she knew that, in reality, "Anna Sees All" was a lie. She didn't see everything. She couldn't. All of the world and all of time and all of the minds and hearts of every man and woman; no one could see all. No mind could hold it all if they did.

Hank smacked himself on the forehead and grinned. "You told me not to eat the cookies."

"And you didn't listen," Liliana sighed. If Hank had listened to that simple warning, so much would have happened differently. Adelind would not have poisoned Juliette. Nick would not be sleeping on his own couch. Sean Renard would not have obsessive thoughts of Nick's beloved tearing him slowly away from Liliana, even while they both fought to hold on to the delicate thing they had built.

She felt a surge of anger toward Nick's partner, but let it go. It was pointless. Hank had no idea what series of events he had set in motion. Even Liliana had not foreseen that.

"I'll listen next time." Hank stood next to her. "Promise." He crossed his heart with a grin.

Liliana looked up at him for a moment.

He still didn't take her seriously. The promise was made as a joke.

She opened all her eyes and made them visible to humans, so he would see them.

Seeing Liliana's eyes shook Hank's certainty that she was a harmless mentally defective kook. She saw his mind reassess what he knew as he studied her face with four different kinds of eyes. The world was not the place that he had formerly believed it to be. Liliana might not simply be one of the amiable con artists, or earnest but deluded mystics that he had encountered before who pretended to know the future.

Liliana was a part of the new world that Hank discovered. She told him not to eat the cookies. She told him Adelind wanted him dead. She warned him. He didn't listen, and he nearly died.

"I will hold you to that promise, Detective Hank," Liliana told him.

Hank nodded. "I'll keep it."

It was truth.

Liliana looked back down at her ballet slipper-covered toes, hovering over four stories of air, and far below an impossible face, staring back up at her accusingly.

"I lost track of my family," she told them. "I stopped watching over them. I withdrew into my little life and let them go their separate ways." Liliana hugged herself. So much had happened in her sister's life. Isabella had been smugly happy. Now, she and her daughter had no one to take care of them. Isabella was still proud, but now she was poor and alone. Her daughter Ariadne still had lingering mental problems from the opening of her fourth eyes. Isabella could not get a job because Ariadne demanded all of her time and care. If Liliana had not called, her sister and niece might have been in desperate straits. "You should never lose track of your family."

Nick sat next to her, letting his own feet dangle over the edge. "Did you know the victim, Lilly?" he asked softly.

"No," Liliana said, then thought about it. "Yes." She thought some more. "I'm not sure."

Hank looked over the edge nervously, then very carefully joined them, sitting on the other side of Liliana.

Nick stilled her hands where they were nearly tearing her skirt. He rubbed her fingers gently. "Family?"

Liliana nodded. A tear tracked its way down her cheek, going around one of her third eyes and along the side of her nose. Only her human eyes wept. She had wondered why that was sometimes.

"What can you tell me about the man who was killed?" Nick asked.

"He is a lowan. His face belongs to my brother, Jason."

Hank chuckled. "Did he steal it?"

Liliana cocked her head to one side and considered. "I do not believe so. Most shape-changers who can steal the appearance of another person change back to their own natural appearance when they die."

Hank's face took on a stunned look. "You mean there are people who can actually do that?" He looked at Nick when he asked.

Nick shrugged.

Liliana nodded. "Yes. But I do not believe that is what we are dealing with in this case."

Nick squeezed her hand. "You don't think this man is your brother, either, though?"

"Jason was my older brother. Ten years older."

Hank looked at her a moment, then said, "That would make him, what, thirty? The vic looks to be about the right age."

"I am ninety-eight years old. If my brother, Jason, were alive today, he would be one-hundred and eight years old. The only way that man could be my brother would be if he had mated with a spinnesehen."

Nick nodded understanding. "Rosalee told me that spinnesehen venom extends lifespan, and you usually share it with your mates so they live as long as you do. So, if your brother found a spinnesehen mate, then he could still look thirty?"

Liliana nodded.

"What's a spinnesehen?" Hank asked.

"I am a spinnesehen," Liliana said, "A spider who sees."

Hank studied her curiously. "If you're ninety-eight, how long do spinne .. whatever.. live?"

Liliana shrugged. "We live until we die, Detective Hank. We do not age. The venom of the spinnesehen is a concentrated dose of factors in spinnesehen blood that make us heal rapidly. We share it with our mates so they live as long as we do." Liliana studied tiny details in the face of the dead man with her fourth eyes. "My brother's eyes had hints of green mixed with the dark blue. His hair was dark brown, rather than true black. And his nose had a crook in it, where he broke it in the lowan games as a youth."

Nick took out a notebook. "So, the victim bears a very strong family resemblance to your brother Jason, who you lost track of, but it isn't him. He's much younger, so possibly a descendant." He stopped writing for a moment. "What was your brother's last name?"

Liliana smiled a little. "My father was from a time before most people had two names. His name was Simon. My brothers used the last name Simonson. My mother's name was Solifu. My sister and I use Solifilia as our last name."

"Brothers?" Nick asked. "More than one?"

"My last two surviving brothers, Jason and Petros, came to Portland with me thirty years ago after my second mother died. I lost track of them. I found Petros' descendents recently, still living here in Portland. A woman named Marilyn Kramer, and her little boy, Simon, who was named for my father."

"Tray Kramer's wife and son?" Nick asked. He and Hank had eventually had to investigate the death of Tray Kramer when his body washed up, sans head, on the shore of the river near the airport.

"Yes."

Hank brightened up. "Maybe the two cases are connected?" They had never solved Tray Kramer's death officially, and Hank thought it was still unsolved.

"They are connected, Hank. Through me. And through the man that the evidence below will tell you is the killer. But the evidence is a lie."

Nick looked a little uncomfortable. "Hank, um, about the Kramer case …"

Liliana smiled. "Nick does not like being dishonest with you, Detective Hank, but much of what happens in the wesen world is outside the normal human laws. You did not find Tray Kramer's murderer, but Nick and I both know who killed him and why."

"Who killed him?" Hank asked.

"I did," Liliana said.

Hank laughed. "That dude was huge, and it looked like whoever killed him actually went toe-to-toe with him. The coroner said his head was taken with a single blow from some sort of sharp sword. It would take someone a lot bigger and …" Hank stopped talking when Liliana popped out one of her arm blades. "Whoah!" He lost his balance as he jerked away.

Liliana grabbed his muscular arm to steady the detective, so he wouldn't fall off the building. She gave him a moment to get over his initial shock reaction. "Are you all right?" she asked him.

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Thanks. I'm good." He looked at her warily. "Should I be arresting you?"

Nick shook his head. "She had good reasons, wesen reasons. It's nothing we can explain in court. How would we even introduce the murder weapon into evidence?"

Hank chuckled. He looked at her arm blade, and his eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas. "That is all kinds of cool. Can I see?"

Liliana smiled. She let him study her arm, the gently curved razor sharp bone blade that stuck out from her wrist, the pocket in the outer edge of her forearm where the blade came from. Eventually, he noticed the tiny spinneret.

Hank's eyebrows drew together when he saw the odd little hole in her wrist.

Liliana shook off her lethargy, infected a little with Hank's wonder at the new world he was exploring. She drew a line out of the spinneret by touching the tiny drop of extruded liquid and pulling. The liquid dried into a tough silk line as air affected it. She attached the end to the bricks of the wall they sat on with a dot of the sticky raw liquid, measured out a few feet of silk, then jumped off the building.

Hank made a sound of distress and tried to catch her, but Nick put a hand on his shoulder. "She's okay. She does this all the time."

She landed lightly on a concrete windowsill one floor down, then used the line to rappel back up to where the boys waited for her.

"You're Spiderman!" Hank said.

Liliana chuckled at the thought of herself in bright colored spandex swinging through New York City to catch criminals. "Not exactly."

Nick said, "Lilly is one of the more formidable wesen in Portland. She's been training me in various fighting styles. She can kick my ass three ways to Sunday."

Liliana smiled. "Perhaps that was true when we met, beautiful Grimm, but not so now. You are far stronger and more skilled than you were when you were new at this."

Nick shrugged off the compliment, but his cheeks pinkened adorably. "Lilly has also been helping out with a lot of cases. She can see things we can't, sometimes even before they happen. She fought and killed Tray Kramer because I couldn't. I was busy on the other side of town, killing two other dangerous wesen who threatened Bud and his friend who was our murder witness. Lilly is my backup for Grimm duties, sort of like Monroe."

Liliana smiled and looked down at her hands. Nick thought of her as backup. She liked that.

She filled Hank in on the rest of the story. The two cases were related, and Hank needed to know the background. "The lowans of Portland had to choose a new king when Leo Taymor died. Tray Kramer would have been king, but he was a very bad man. He had already killed a few, and brutalized many. He was involved, along with Leo Taymor, in the travesty of the lowan games that nearly cost Nick and Monroe their lives. He was unworthy of being a lowan king. If Tray Kramer had become king, he would have wreaked havoc on the lions of Oregon, and probably done untold damage to many others as well."

"Why do you care so much about the lowans?" Hank asked. "You're a spider wesen, right? Don't the various kinds of wesen keep to themselves generally?"

Liliana nodded approval. Hank was learning fast. "My father was a lowen. My brothers were lowan. The lowan pride here is …," Liliana tilted her head, wondering how to express what the lowan pride meant to her. "They are like extended family." That sounded about right.

In the case of Marilyn and little Simon who Liliana had taken to babysitting occasionally, they were even closer family. "I was chosen to be the champion for a good, honorable, lowan man who has since proven to be an excellent king. His name is Daniel Samson. I fought and killed Tray Kramer so that Daniel could be king."

Nick scribbled something in his notebook. "And you believe the two cases are related?"

Liliana nodded. "I looked into the future. When your lab techs are done, the evidence below will indicate that Daniel Samson killed this lowan man who looks like my brother."

"Well, that certainly saves us some time," Hank said. "Let's just arrest Daniel Samson now, and we can all go home."

Liliana shook her head. "No, Detective Hank. You must help me prove that Daniel did not do this. The evidence is a lie."

"Are you sure, Lilly?" Nick put a gentle hand on Liliana's shoulder. "I know you believe Daniel is a good man, but a lowan king could have very good reasons for killing a lowan in his territory. Maybe the man who looks like your brother broke a law, or something. Isn't that possible?"

Liliana nodded. "It would be possible, even likely with some kings. But Daniel does not rule that way. In any case, I know that Daniel did not kill this man. I saw the murder happen."

"You're an eyewitness?" Hank said. "Why didn't you tell us that?"

Liliana blinked, confused. "I just did."

Nick chuckled. "Liliana's brain works a little differently from ours. She's always honest, but she doesn't always communicate things the way you or I would." Nick turned back to Liliana, notebook in hand. "Tell us what you saw."

"My sister and her daughter are going to come stay with me soon," Liliana said.

Hank started to open his mouth to interrupt, but Nick held his hand up to stop him. Nick knew that no matter how out of line with the question Liliana's words seemed to be, she was answering the question in her own way. And eventually, it would make sense.

"So, I was thinking about family. I had already met Petros' descendents. I wondered about Jason, and about his family, but I had no way to find them. I remembered Jason's face, and the faces of his children, but after that, …" Liliana shook her head. "I thought there was no way that I could find out what happened to them, then I saw Jason's face." She shook her head in remembered surprise. "It was Jason, young, strong, healthy. I saw him. Then, a moment later, I saw him get his throat ripped out by a lowan." Liliana's hands trembled as she ran the silken scarves that made up her skirt through her fingers, trying to calm her nerves again.

"I hadn't seen my brother in decades. He was a very old man the last time I saw him. Then I watched him die, young, here, in this time, in Portland." She looked down into the alley. Someone had covered the dead man's face with a sheet. "Here, in this alley, I saw him die. I came here, looking for him, thinking maybe I could save him, but I was too late." Another tear tracked down her face. "If I had searched for him a few hours sooner, …"

Nick put an arm around Liliana's shoulders. "It's not your fault, Lilly. I know this is hard, but I need you to tell me everything you can remember about the lowan who killed him."

Liliana wiped tears away and nodded. "He was about Detective Hank's height and build. That's about all I could tell. He wore a long coat, hat, gloves and a balaclava. His snout was briefly visible when he woged and tore Jason's throat out." Her voice caught. "So, I know he was lowan," she managed to finish.

"You can't tell us anything else about what he looked like," Hank asked. "Was he white or black? Dark hair or light? Old or young?"

"He did not move like an older man. He moved with a predator's grace. I do not know if his skin was as pale as yours, Nick, or as dark as yours, Detective Hank. I do not know if his hair was as golden as Adelind's, as red as Juliette's, or as black as mine. I am sorry, but without a clear image of the man, I could not follow him in time. I was only able to see the murder at all because I was looking for Jason and his family, and my eyes found this man, with Jason's face."

Nick squeezed her shoulder. "Lilly, if that's the case, then how do you know the killer wasn't Daniel Samson?"

"I told you. The killer was no bigger than the man with Jason's face. He was no bigger than Detective Hank."

"How big is Daniel Samson?" Hank asked.

Liliana pictured Daniel in her mind. "He is a very big man. Over six foot four, and he weighs around three hundred pounds, most of it muscle, but some extra weight around his waist. He has very dark skin, darker than yours Detective Hank. His hair is black and curly, but with gray around the temples. He is in his fifties and he moves with a slight limp from an old knee injury."

Hank shook his head, with an admiring smile. "I wish all of our eyewitnesses were like you."

Liliana looked down at her hands, sadly. "Good witnesses can testify to what they have seen, Detective Hank. I cannot."

"Just Hank, is fine." He considered the crime scene below them for a few moments. "If the evidence all points to Samson, we'll have a hard time continuing to look for another suspect, without something to aim us in another direction. Why can't you testify?"

"I was at home when the murder happened. I was not even here. How would I explain how I saw the murder when I was actually miles away?"

"You could just say that you were here." Hank gestured at the roof of the building.

"I am not good at lying," Liliana reminded him. "And I would not be considered a credible witness in any case, since most people see me as a "harmless mentally defective kook."

Hank's face showed comical surprise when Liliana spoke the contents of his thoughts to him, his eyes getting very large and his mouth dropping open.

Nick coughed, covering his wide grin with a hand.

Another time, she might have laughed, too. Even now, it made her smile a little. "You must find other evidence than that which was placed where you expected it."

"What do you mean?" Nick asked her.

"I saw the killer place a watch on the ground, a scrap of cloth in the dead man's hand, and a pair of broken glasses. These are false clues. You must look for other clues to find the real killer."

"Is there anything else that you can tell us that might help?" Nick asked.

Liliana shook her head. "Not that I can think of, Nick. I'm sorry I did not see more."

Nick chuckled. "You saw more than anyone else did, Lilly."

"Lilly?" Hank asked.

He seemed to be asking about the name itself, rather than getting her attention. "It was what my father called me when I was little. It is what my friends call me, Hank. You can call me Lilly, too, if you intend to keep your promise."

Hank chuckled. "Yeah, I definitely promise to listen next time you give me a warning."

Liliana nodded. "Nick, Hank, I am too much in the middle of this." Liliana hopped down from the little wall onto the roof. "I cannot see what will happen. A great many things are in flux that seem to be unrelated, but clearly are not."

"What does all that mean exactly?" Hank asked.

Liliana glanced up, briefly at the dark, handsome detective. "It means that there is far more at stake than just finding the murderer of one man. It also means that I may not see danger coming until it is too late. Normally, if one of you faces death, I know about it in time to warn you, or to help. But now ..." Liliana shrugged and hugged herself.

Nick kissed Liliana on the cheek. "We'll watch our backs, Lilly. Promise."

Liliana desperately hoped that Nick would keep that promise.


	2. A Death Relived

A Death Relived

Liliana walked down the stairs, mind still a little overcome by the way she had just missed meeting a young man with her brother's face, only to see him die. What sort of man had he been? Why had he been murdered? She had attended many lowan pride events since she had become the lowan king's champion. If the Jason look-alike had been a part of the Portland pride, surely she would have seen him.

The pride extended to all of Oregon officially. Unofficially, the local pride leaders of each city ruled their prides and swore fealty to Daniel if they chose. Daniel directly controlled only the Portland pride. For the rest, it was more a matter of favors given, promised, and earned. Give and take, honor and oaths.

Leo, the previous lowan king had not been a man of his word. He had broken promises. A lowan king's word was the source and the strength of his power. Consequently, Daniel had a huge job, re-consolidating the power of his kingdom. He had to win over the other pride-kings, convince them that he would keep his promises. So far, he had done an excellent job. His unusual method of gaining the throne and his unusual champion had raised some eyebrows, but there had only been two challenges to his right to be king of Oregon.

Liliana had fought both challengers. One had been an honorable lowan who feared that Daniel was too much influenced by the previous king's ways, and perhaps, too much in thrall to the local prince. Liliana had defeated the challenger, but returned him to his pride still breathing and able, after some healing, to continue to fight any challenges to his rule. He was a good king. Daniel would win him over, in time.

The second man had been more of Leo Taymor's ilk. He never should have been a lowan king. Liliana had not killed him since it had not been necessary, but a pride-king with only one arm would not rule for long.

Nick asked her to come with them as he and Hank took another look at the murder scene. Her eyes might see what their eyes had missed.

Liliana reluctantly agreed. There were too many people in the crime scene. She preferred her vantage point from the top of the building. She had been alone there. But standing in the place where her brother's look-alike had died would add more clarity to the vision. She knew that was true. She just didn't want to go there.

Hank and Nick flanked her protectively as she hunched in on herself.

Officer Wu greeted her. "Oh, hi, it's you."

Liliana smiled, even while she stared at her shoes and tried to pretend there was no one around but her detectives and the nice sergeant. "I am Liliana, Officer Wu," she told him.

Nick ducked his head. "Sorry, I forgot I never really introduced you two." He gestured to her. "This is Liliana Solifilia. She's a local psychic, very well-respected in the community."

"A psychic, huh?" Wu said. "What am I thinking?"

Liliana looked at him with her third eyes for a moment. "That bringing in a psychic on a simple open and shut case seems like an odd move for Nick and Hank to make. Some detectives. You understand now why Nick didn't introduce us before, since a detective consulting a psychic can be bad for his image. And also, that I have very nice boobs, small and high, just the way you like them."

Nick coughed hard, hand over his mouth.

Hank laughed out loud.

Wu just looked like she'd smacked him between the eyes. The expression reminded her of the expression Hank had shown when she told him the exact word for word contents of his mind. People did not expect that, especially if what they were thinking was socially inappropriate to say out loud.

Liliana thought about it. "I should not have said that last part out loud?" She kept forgetting the social rule about not talking about sexual thoughts in most situations. How did people who couldn't see into the minds of others ever figure out that someone was sexually interested in them if no one was allowed to say so?

Wu just shook his head in amazement. She had thoroughly convinced him that her gift was genuine. "I don't suppose you could tell me what the lottery numbers will be tomorrow?"

Odd. No one had ever asked her that before. It seemed like a very logical request for anyone who had money concerns. And who didn't have money concerns? Liliana opened her fourth eyes and started searching.

Nick held up a hand. "I didn't bring Lilly for her psychic abilities. She's a relative of the victim and murder scenes aren't anything new to her. She would like to help. She witnessed the crime in her own way. It's not anything we can use in court, but she might be able to give us some insight, spot something we might have missed."

Wu's face showed concern for Liliana, hunched in on herself. "This is pretty gruesome, ma'am. Are you sure you're up for this? Especially if the vic was family."

Nick put a comforting arm around Liliana.

Liliana shook her head in denial. "My sight means that I have seen far more murders than I would like to discuss, Officer Wu. I have seen Jason's death many times already. It isn't that." Liliana's voice went soft with embarrassment. She leaned close to Officer Wu. "I'm just not very good with crowds."

"Is that so?" Wu looked around at the dozens of civilians barely held back by the tape, the coroners waiting to take the body, the crime scene photographers and fingerprint experts and other forensics people milling around, even after they were done with what they needed to do. "Yo! Everybody who doesn't have a reason to be here, get the hell out! This is a crime scene not a cocktail party." He poked a couple of uniformed officers and had them encourage as many people out of the alley as he could.

Nick squeezed Liliana's shoulders. "Will that help?" he asked her.

Liliana smiled at her toes and nodded. "I really like Officer Wu."

"He hasn't tortured you with bad jokes yet," Hank said. He held the crime scene tape up for her and Nick to duck under.

With the alley all but empty, the air felt far less heavy. She straightened up enough that Nick let her out from under his arm.

"Thank you, Officer Wu," Liliana leaned in close to him as he chased the last reluctant stragglers away. As she almost expected these days, she saw an ugly bloody death in Wu's near future. "When the man who works for the Park gets hit, and the driver runs into a building. Don't go in after him. Wait for Nick and Hank."

Wu nodded. "Will do. Thanks for the heads' up. Hey, can you give me any advice as far as dating?"

Liliana saw what he was thinking and grinned. "I am already in a relationship, but I am flattered." Liliana gave him her card. "Come to my business, and I will see if I can help you find what you are looking for."

"Thanks!" He pocketed the card.

She could see that he actually intended to come see her as a customer, and that he would avoid his death because he would remember her warning and heed it. She had gained a new customer, but he also seemed like a friend. It made her wonder if he should call her Lilly or Anna. Customers called her Anna. Phoebe was her only customer who she also considered a friend, and she now called her Lilly. Technically Marilyn had started as a customer, but she was family. Family called her Liliana.

And Sean called her Liliana. He was special, a category all his own.

Liliana's life used to be very simple. She didn't have any friends and had not seen her family in decades. Nor had she had a lover in years. Everyone called her Anna. No one mattered enough for her to want them to call her by the more treasured name. She wondered how she had ever thought that was the right way to live.

"Call me Lilly," she told Wu, and added one more to her mental count of friends.

Wu left a couple of other officers in charge of keeping everyone back and followed her and the two detectives to see what she would do and say.

The crime scene was already familiar to her. She had been staring at it for hours, long before the police came.

Nick said, "Tell us exactly what happened."

Liliana nodded understanding of what he wanted. "Jason's hands were tied when he was brought here in the trunk of a car. The killer held a gun to his back and forced him to walk into the alley."

"From where?"

"The car." Liliana pointed to the other end of the alley. "It parked there. It was dark gray, with four doors. I do not know much about cars, so I do not know what kind it was."

"Did you see the license plate?" Nick asked.

Liliana looked back. The man with Jason's face, who she couldn't help but continue to think of as Jason, had been her anchor. He was the focus of her fourth eyes. He was family. He was important. The man who killed him was important.

Liliana had spent decades training her fourth eyes to filter out things that were not important. It was the only way that she could cut down the overwhelming everything of all that was and had been and could be into something her mind could absorb without going mad. The car was not important. It was just a car.

The spinnesehen stubbornly insisted to the part of her mind that guided her fourth eyes that the car WAS important. She needed to see the license plate so that Nick and Hank could find the killer.

Slowly, the license plate clarified from a fuzzy rectangle of white. She spoke the numbers and letters to Hank and Nick as they came into focus in her mind.

Nick wrote them down in his little notebook. Wu looked impressed and also wrote them down. Hank just shook his head in amazement.

Nick told Wu. "Can you have that plate run?"

Wu nodded. "I'm on it." He pulled out his phone and walked away so that his conversation wouldn't disturb them.

"Okay, Lilly," Nick said gently. "His hands were tied. In front of him or behind?"

"Behind his back. Jason moved with difficulty, as if he was hurt." Liliana saw flashes of a fight between the man in the balaclava and the man with her brother's face. "Jason fought him, fiercely. The other man won. He fought like a ring champion, but he seemed to intentionally disable rather than kill. Then he brought Jason here to kill him."

"Where were they before?" Hank asked. "Where did they fight?"

"I'm not sure. Somewhere far from here," Liliana said. "The only strong image I saw was here. Death tends to be … overwhelming. When someone's death is near, it's the first thing I see when I look into their future. It blocks out everything else unless I spend quiet meditative time, searching. Then, sometimes I can see events other than death. I will try to search tomorrow, when I am more calm."

"Okay, Lilly," Nick said. "What else did you see here? What kind of gun did the man have?"

"I don't know much about guns," Liliana said. "It was kind of like yours, I guess. An automatic, not a revolver."

"Okay, what else?"

"The man walked Jason to right here and stopped. He said, 'This'll do. The Grimm can't help but find you here. Turn around.'"

Nick's jaw muscles jumped as he was mentioned by the killer.

Hank's eyebrows went up.

Liliana sank into the vision, her voice imitating the voices of the two men.

"I don't understand what you think you'll gain by doing this," the man who looked like Jason said. "Why would a Grimm care about me, anyway?"

"This one will. A prince runs this town. But the Grimm hasn't sworn allegiance to him. The lowan king licks the prince's boots, and the prince's trained attack bitch takes out anyone who dares to challenge. The king of lions should rule, not bow to some human prince."

Jason said, "What the heck, man? You're preaching to the choir. I'm on your side. How is killing me supposed to change things?"

The man chuckled. "You don't even know, do you?"

"Know what?"

The man shrugged. "It doesn't matter. They'll figure it out." He woged suddenly and lunged for Jason's throat. Blood sprayed and gushed.

Liliana wept as she once again, vividly, saw her brother die, his eyes wide, his mouth gasping for breath. She knelt beside the body.

Nick started to hold her, but she held up a hand to push him away. "Jason fell here, face down." She pointed. A wide pool of blood shimmered in the streetlights in the place she pointed to, a few feet from the body. "He cut the bonds on Jason's wrists and threw them over there."

Hank knelt down where she pointed, put on blue plastic gloves, and gingerly lifted a couple of zip ties. He bagged them in a Ziploc from his pocket.

"He turned Jason over." Liliana swallowed bile. She looked down at the body covered in a sheet, but saw Jason's blue eyes looking up at her in horror as the light slid away from them. "He was still alive, barely. Still conscious."

"The killer pulled a piece of cloth from his pocket that had a blood stain on it. He pushed it into Jason's hand. Jason grabbed onto it. He woged, just for a moment, and slashed at his killer weakly. Jason cut the man's hand with his claws through the glove, just a little."

Nick nodded. "We'll have forensics check again for DNA evidence under the victim's nails, make sure they didn't miss it."

"The killer jerked his hand away. 'Stupid, worthless, half breed. Die already.'" Liliana swallowed, her mouth tasting bitter from the ugly words. "He took the glasses and watch and set them on the ground next to Jason." She stood up, following the killer away from Jason's body. "He threw something in this trash can before he got back in his car and drove away. It looked like a wallet. There was plastic over the seat and floor in the car when he got in."

Nick lifted the lid of the trash can she indicated, his own gloves in place. With two fingers he lifted out a wallet. The ID had a picture of her brother. It said, Jason Simonson IV. Nick held it up and showed her. It explained why her mind kept stubbornly calling the young stranger by her brother's name.

Liliana nodded, mutely. This man had been her brother's great grandson. And his name had been Jason, just as her brother's was. The tears flowed in rivers, blinding her third eyes. She closed all of her eyes, and just wept.

There was no more useful information that she could give them. It was okay for her to cry now.

Hank was the one who put a gentle arm around her shoulder this time. It startled Liliana a little. She normally didn't let people touch her unless she knew them well. But Hank called her Lilly now.

Liliana buried her face against his shirt and sobbed. The dead man had been family, with her brother's name and her brother's face, and the only thing she had known about him was how he died. And that it was her fault. She had hidden from the world and lost her family. Now, they were being killed just because they had ties to her, and they didn't even know it. "My fault," she sobbed.

Nick put the wallet in another plastic bag while Hank patted her back.

"It wasn't your fault, Lilly. It was mine," Nick said softly.

Liliana got herself under control after a few seconds and pushed away from Hank's gentle embrace. She could have a proper cry at home when the work was done. She shook her head. "He was killed because I am the lowan king's champion. I encouraged Daniel to ally with the prince. And he is related to me. This Jason didn't even know me, but the man killed him because he was my family."

"He killed him so the Grimm would find him here," Nick said. "This was some kind of message to me."

Liliana nodded. "He probably wanted you to blame Daniel and go after him. He probably intended to set you against me."

"The prince's attack bitch is you?" Hank asked. "Who is the prince? Why would anyone think you worked for him?"

Liliana sighed. "I am not allowed to say, Hank. I am sorry. I have told you all that I can. I'll go now. You two have work to do."

She walked toward the yellow tape where Wu and his men held the people back. The line of people was like a brick wall. She didn't know if she could make her feet walk through.

Nick came up beside her. "Lilly, I'll drive you home."

"Find the man who killed Jason," she told him through clenched teeth. "I will find my own way home."

Nick dug in his heels. "Hank is taking the evidence back to the station. I'm taking you home." Nick put his arm around her and guided her forward. "No arguments."

Liliana probably would have argued anyway, any other time. This time, she just sighed and huddled under his arm. "Okay."

Most of the trip to her house was spent in silence. Nick only asked her a question as he pulled up in front of her house. "Are you working for the prince?"

"No. I do not work for him," she told Nick.

"Do you know why the killer might believe that?"

"Because I told Daniel that the prince was an honorable man, and encouraged him to work with him as an ally."

Nick thought about that. "Is he? An honorable man?" Nick knew that Liliana was honor bound not to reveal the prince's identity, but he also knew that she would tell him as much of the truth as she felt she could.

"I will tell you what I told Daniel." Liliana looked up into Nick's eyes for a moment. "The prince is a very strong-willed, logical and ruthless man. He does what he believes is best for his city. He sees Portland as his, and keeps other powerful forces from interfering as much as he can. Every ally he gains makes his ability to defend his city from outside interference stronger."

"Can I trust him, Lilly?"

"He understands honor and responsibility. He fights for order and stability and justice, although his definition of justice and yours may not be the same. You can trust him to keep his word scrupulously once given, to be who he is, and to do what he believes he should do. You cannot trust that what he believes is right will always be the same as what you believe is right. You are very different kinds of men, and will not see eye to eye on many things."

Nick nodded, accepting the answer and digesting it. "He saved Juliette, didn't he?"

"Yes." Liliana knew that was all she should say, but she couldn't help but add something in defense of her prince. "It cost him, Nick. And I do not mean money. Saving Juliette was not easy, nor was it free. He is still paying the price."

"Then why did he do it?"

"Because he was the only one who could."

Liliana got out of the car and waited for Nick to drive away before she called a cab.

She couldn't rest yet. There was one more place she had to go.


	3. Extending Family

Extending Family

Liliana knocked on the door of a rambling old house with a wrap-around porch on ten acres just outside of Portland proper, adjacent to the National Forest. It was about 2 AM. Maybe 3 AM. Liliana wasn't very good at keeping track of time without her clocks to guide her.

After several minutes of knocking, a young woman who stood six foot two and had twenty pounds more muscle than Detective Hank opened the door wearing a long t-shirt with lion cubs on it and sweatpants. Her hair, in four inch black braids tipped with colorful beads, seemed to have a life of its own, and be just as irritated about being woken up.

"Hello, Leona," Liliana said.

"It's the middle of the freakin' night. What do you want?" The young lioness looked around warily, checking to see if Liliana was being chased.

"I need to speak to your father, and to Marilyn."

"They're asleep. And Dad hasn't been getting much sleep lately, between his construction business and pride business. Can it wait?" Leona asked with a tone that said she didn't expect the answer to be yes.

"My business with your father and Marilyn can probably wait until they wake up. I just need to be here. I need to know they're safe. I need to keep watch."

Leona's lips tightened. She nodded understanding. "Come in, then." Leona opened the door and escorted Liliana into a huge open living room with a fireplace and enough comfortable furniture to accommodate twenty. When the pride leaders met here, many of them ended up sitting on the floor, or leaning against the walls. The vaulted ceiling had beautiful exposed beam construction. Liliana loved houses built like that.

Liliana stared with all eyes up the stairs toward the rooms where her fourth eyes showed her a sleeping boy, a few weeks shy of his fourth birthday, and a woman in her late twenties with long, thick brown hair. They were both safe, and her fourth eyes told her that they would continue to be safe, at least for a few more hours. And then, those two innocent lives, who had already been through so much, would be in terrible danger, simply because they were related to Liliana by blood.

Leona saw the direction of Liliana's gaze. The tall lowan woman got a better look at the petite spider wesen in the electric light of a living room lamp. "Have you been crying, Lilly?"

"More than twenty years ago, I lost track of my brothers and their families. Then the granddaughter of my brother, Petros, walked into my shop. I never would have known Marilyn was family if she hadn't told me that she named her son Simon, after my father."

Leona put a slim, strong, long-fingered hand on Liliana's shoulder and squeezed gently. "What happened?"

"I had two brothers who came to Portland with me. Jason played games with me when I was little, baby-sat me when my parents wanted time to themselves. He looked out for me. When I was nine, a pretty older girl made fun of me for being so tiny and skinny. She called me stick girl and made the other circus children call me that, too." Liliana smiled a little, even as another tear ran down her face. "In front of the other kids, Jason tripped her near the elephants, so she fell in a huge pile of elephant poop. When she got up, Jason handed her a stick to get the goo off her face. He said, 'Who's a stick girl now?'" Liliana had almost forgotten how much she adored her older brother that day. "No one called me stick girl anymore."

Leona grinned. "That's a good brother."

"Yes, he was." Liliana let the tears fall. She was safe here. "I watched him die tonight."

"Oh." Leona clenched her hands into fists. "I'm so sorry, Lilly." Leona hugged her, tight enough to threaten ribs. "He lived a long life, though, if he was older than you and he just died tonight."

"I don't even know when my Jason died. I lost track of him, just like Petros. My own brothers. I just lost them in time, became so self-absorbed that I stopped watching over my own family. The man I watched die tonight had Jason's face, though, and his name. He was my brother's great, great grandson." She looked up at Leona with eyes that were blurred from tears. "This Jason was murdered because he was related to me, and he never even knew who I was."

Leona tensed next to her. "You think Marilyn and Simon might be in danger?"

Liliana nodded. "Daniel is in danger as well. Someone does not approve of a lowan king with a spinnesehen champion, nor of lowans whose blood is mixed with spiders. Killing Jason, and framing your father for the murder, was the first strike. I have no doubt this man is not done with us."

"He framed Dad for murder?" Leona pushed away from Liliana in shock.

Liliana nodded.

"I'll rip his head off," Leona growled, face gone furry and fanged. Her fur was as black as her skin had been, a rare trait that made her bright yellow cat eyes and her long white fangs stand out the more fiercely. The beads in her braids rattled together as Leona shook her head to bring herself back under control. She was young, but Leona had a strong will and the potential for tremendous personal power. She was the true daughter of a king of lions. "Are the cops coming for Dad tonight?"

Liliana looked to see when Nick and Hank would come to Daniel Samson's family's home. She knew that eventually the two detectives would come either here or to Daniel's business. "Tomorrow." The sun was well up, but not yet directly overhead in her vision. "Before noon." It was as precise as she could be with no watch or clock to check near them.

The tall, muscular lioness nodded. "You get some sleep, Lilly. I'll keep watch. I'll wake you before the pride meeting tomorrow morning." Leona went outside and circled the house, then came in, locked the door, checked every window and door in the house, then sat in the kitchen with a cup of coffee.

Liliana knew she couldn't have a more capable guardian, for herself, or for the others in this house, some who were blood family, and some who had become like family.

She laid down on the big, soft couch, and wished she was curled up next to Sean. She didn't want to call and wake her prince, though. Adelind's curse had been poisoning his dreams and making sleep difficult for him.

She wrote him a text. "I need you. Come to the pride meeting at Daniel Samson's house tomorrow morning." She considered not sending it. It was true that she deeply wished to have Sean close, but it was also true that having him close had become a subtle form of torture.

She clicked SEND. Daniel needed help from the police captain. Liliana's personal feelings didn't matter.

She thought she would be awake for the rest of the night, but the next thing she knew, a little boy squealed, "Aunt Lilly!"

Liliana startled awake just in time to be thoroughly bounced on, hugged and sloppily kissed by her great grand-nephew.

"Hello, little Simon," she said, and hugged him back.

"I'm not little. I'm almost four!" He held up the appropriate number of fingers.

"So you are, but the Simon I knew was so big, he was as tall as your Uncle Daniel. So, you might still be little Simon to me, even when you're forty."

Little Simon rolled his eyes. "I'll never be that old." Then he grabbed her hand and dragged her out from under the afghan someone had laid on her while she slept. "Mom made pancakes!"

The meal was served, consumed and cleared at lightning speed. Normally, Liliana would have helped, but everyone treated her as if she were ill. The Samsons, Leona, her mother Arel, and father Daniel, and Marilyn Kramer all insisted that Liliana rest and sip tea while they bustled around like a well-orchestrated dance team.

Everyone treated her like she was ill except little Simon. He sat on her lap after consuming his own pancakes at record speed. Then, he brought her a small collection of imaginative little monsters that lit up when placed on a special pedestal. He told her in great detail what their names were, what powers and weaknesses they had, and why they lit up the color and position that they did when placed on the pedestal. Apparently, the toys went with some sort of game.

Liliana was reminded of Monroe telling her about clocks. All she had to do was nod and smile to hold up her end of the conversation.

When the dishes were cleared, a family council convened around the breakfast table.

The younger of the three lionesses had already told her family the sad news of the previous night's events.

"Should I take Simon outside while you talk?" Marilyn asked.

"No!" Liliana said, and held tight to her little nephew.

Everyone looked at her with surprise.

Liliana ducked her head in embarrassment. "I'm sorry." She knew she was being a bit paranoid and possessive, but she couldn't help it. "The killer is targeting my family. I am afraid for you both, especially little Simon."

Marilyn's eyes widened and then narrowed. "Maybe Simon and I should leave town for a while. I have some friends in Montana I haven't visited in a few years. Might be a good time." Marilyn tended to be very practical when it came to danger to her child.

Liliana considered that possibility. As long as Marilyn and Simon stayed in Portland, they were targets. She saw several possible futures where one or both of them were murdered, and the sight of her little nephew's bloody corpse made her want to throw up her pancakes.

If the two lowans could safely leave the state until the murderer was caught … Liliana nodded. "Yes. You should go visit your friends. I will call you when it is safe to return. In the meantime, go nowhere alone or without a gun. The enemy has a gun and fights like a ring champion." Marilyn was no fragile flower, but neither was she really a fighter. Liliana would put her bets on Marilyn if faced with almost any human attacker, but their enemy was not human.

Leona and Arel both put a hand on Marilyn's shoulder, one strong dark, feminine hand on each side. "We'll keep you safe." Leona and Arel were both fighters. Arel was past fifty, but still very strong and fast, and Leona had become downright deadly. There were days when the tall, young lioness could defeat Liliana in a toe-to-toe fight.

Marilyn smiled warmly and patted both hands. "I trust you."

The three lionesses were the ones who came to Liliana for help initially. They were united in many ways, a strong bond of love and mutual protection. Arel and Leona had helped Marilyn get away from her abusive ex-husband, and taken her and her child into their home as part of their family. They had encompassed Liliana in that circle after she fought Marilyn's ex-husband to the death in order to make Daniel the new king.

"Why don't you two go with Marilyn and the squirt," Daniel said, voice deep and rumbly. "I'd feel better if you were out of harm's way, too."

Leona shook her head. "You'll need both your champions here, Dad. I'll stay." Liliana had been training the young lioness to fight. Liliana could not be with Daniel Samson all the time, and the older man could no longer fight effectively himself. Leading a pride of unruly lowans occasionally meant busting heads to get a point across, and a lowan king could never be seen as weak or vulnerable. Daniel needed a champion with him always.

His daughter had been honored when Liliana suggested that Leona should be that champion when Liliana could not be there. The young lioness still had some of the hot temperament of most adolescent lowans, but her new responsibility had matured her considerably.

Arel Samson's lips firmed into a sharp line. The elder lioness would not be easily sent away. "I am not going to run off like some mousehertz just because …"

Liliana interrupted her. "Marilyn and little Simon are in danger until they leave the state. I have seen several different ways that someone will try to kill them. They need a protector on their journey. They will not be safe until they have left Oregon."

Arel closed her mouth and nodded. The older Samson looked so much like her daughter, even more so now that Leona had begun to get lines of pride and responsibility etched into her dark young face. Only the gray in Arel's braids marked her as really different. "I'll go, then," Arel said. "And I'll take a couple of the strongest of the pride with me." She looked at Daniel, and her face took on a pained look. Protecting Marilyn on her trip meant that she would have to leave her husband behind while he faced murder charges and an attack on his position as king.

Daniel squeezed her hand. "I'll be fine. Lilly and Leona have my back."

Leona straightened her spine and lifted her chin. "I won't let you down, Dad."

"Nor will I, my friend," Liliana said. She looked up at the clock in the kitchen, 7:53. "The first of your pride will arrive in two minutes."

Lilly, with Simon held still in one arm, toys in hand, climbed the fireplace in the living room, and leapt up from the mantle to a roof beam. She caught the beam with one hand, and carefully helped Simon up to the top of the beam with the other.

"Oh, Lilly, I don't know if that's such a good idea," Marilyn said, hand over her mouth.

Simon looked down at his mother and waved with a broad grin. "I'm up high!"

"He will be safe with me," Liliana said. "No one will hurt my nephew." She attached a short line to the beam and wrapped it around Simon's waist, between his legs, and over his shoulders. If the little boy fell, he would drop less than three feet and swing, fully supported. He would probably think it was grand fun.

"Um, okay, I guess." Marilyn did not look overly reassured.

Arel chuckled. "Safety means height to Lilly. She'll take care of him. Let's go get the two of you packed." The first knock on the door came as they were still walking up the stairs.

Daniel let his pride leaders in, greeting the early arrivals with a firm handshake, and a back pat that threatened to knock the breath from some of the smaller lowans. Once the first few people had arrived, Daniel took a seat in a huge old high-backed recliner chair, and let someone else get the door. Leona held a bare-bladed sword, and stood a couple steps behind him, a mute testament that the lion king wouldn't easily be taken down. She didn't expect to actually use the sword, but it was traditional.

Liliana sat on the rafter directly above him. Lilly could overcome her fear of crowds to some extent in this context, when they were all members of the pride. But she was still far more comfortable above the crowd than down in it.

She played mock battles quietly with Simon and his toys on the narrow beam. She told him that if he wanted to stay up on the beam with her, his monsters had to fight with the mute button on. He thought that was great fun, mouthing monstrous roars and explosive sound effects without actually making the sounds. Liliana kept her human eyes on her little nephew, and watched the rest of the room with her second eyes.

Every once in a while, she switched to her third eyes, and glanced down to check on the truth of something that one of the lowan's said. Daniel glanced up at her periodically when he was uncertain. She nodded to him each time. The Portland pride had learned that with a spinnesehen champion, their new king could not be lied to, so they no longer tried. The lowans of Portland had learned to be very honest in their dealings with their king and fellow pride members.

It saved a lot of time.

Another knock came at the door. Liliana looked with her fourth eyes as she did each time.

It was Sean.

She severed the safety line she had put on Simon, scooped him up in one arm, attached a line with the other arm and dropped.

She landed lightly next to Daniel's chair on the opposite side from Leona. She plopped little Simon into Daniel's lap.

"The prince comes," she told the pride.

A murmur of discontent ran through the room. "This is a pride meeting." "He's not lowan." "What does he think he's doing?" And a few fearful voices. "Did we do something wrong?" "He doesn't have any reason to come after us."

"I asked him to come," Liliana announced. "Please, let him in."

One of the pride let Sean Renard in. The rest cleared a path to Daniel's chair so the prince wouldn't have to step over lowans to approach the king.

Sean looked very tall and elegant, suit pressed impeccably, spine as straight as a redwood trunk. Liliana's heart thumped against her chest at the sight of him. She wanted to run to him, jump on him, climb him like a tree and kiss him senseless.

This wasn't really the place for that, though. It certainly would have put a dent in his dignity, and it would have undermined her position as Daniel's champion first, the prince's girlfriend second. Liliana hated a little bit that she was starting to understand politics. She would have preferred to just greet the man she loved how he deserved and to be blissfully ignorant of the rest.

Daniel pulled Liliana in close by the hand and murmured in her ear, his voice disapproving. "You didn't tell me about this, Lilly. Why is he here?"

"I am sorry, Daniel. I should have consulted you first." she said sincerely. "Considering the current situation, I thought it was a good idea to request his aid."

"I don't need help from a human royal to keep my title." Daniel looked like he'd bitten something sour.

"Perhaps not, king of lions, but the help of a police captain could be very valuable right now, I think."

Daniel let her go with a grunt of understanding if not approval.

The lowan who had let Sean in bowed respect before closing the door behind him.

Sean Renard walked up to Daniel through the path made for him. His long legs took only five strides to cross the wide room.

He bowed his head slightly in respect to Daniel Samson.

Daniel bowed exactly the same amount, no more, no less.

They had an odd sort of equality of position. Daniel was king of all the lions of Oregon, but Portland was his home. Sean was prince and undisputed ruler of all the wesen of Portland. So, technically, Daniel owed allegiance to Sean, even though some would say that Daniel out-ranked him.

"King of Lions," Sean said, giving Daniel the respect of his full formal title in front of his pride. "Your champion requested that I come. Is there some way that I can be of service to a valued ally?"

"Your highness," Daniel returned respect, giving Sean his proper title. "It seems that I am about to face some legal trouble. My champion gave me warning earlier this morning. I'll let her explain."

Liliana smiled at Sean.

His expression barely changed, but she saw his eyes soften. "It's good to see you, little spider."

"And you, my prince. I wish it was under better circumstances. Daniel is about to be under suspicion of murder."

A collective gasp of shock went through the room.

Sean's eyebrow went up. "Did you kill someone in my canton, king of lions?" The question came out mild enough, as if Sean were merely curious, but his eyes had lost their softness.

"I didn't. You have my word on that," Daniel said. A lowan king's word was law. It was his bond. It was his honor. It was his power.

Sean nodded respect. "I believe you, of course. A lowan king's word is beyond reproach."

Liliana could taste the irony in that statement. Leo Taymor, the last lowan king, had been a liar, a cheat, a bully, and a coward.

"The problem is that someone wants the Grimm to think I did kill someone," Daniel added. "Someone wants me off the throne, and with a Grimm's axe at my throat."

Sean's jaw muscle jumped. "I see. I assure you that I had nothing to do with this. But I will not condone violence toward my Grimm. Anyone who does him harm will answer to me." He said the last part a bit louder, clearly a warning aimed at everyone in the room, not just Daniel.

There were a few whispers among the lowans, but they were more of the surprise and shock and speculation variety than fear. Sean had deliberately referred to Nick as "his" Grimm. The entire pride was now wondering if Nick had sworn fealty to the prince.

Liliana spoke up. "I have already spoken with Nick, and shown him the difference between evidence that was planted, and evidence that is genuine. He must do his duty as a police officer, but I do not believe he will attack my king as a Grimm. Whoever targeted my king did not know that the Grimm was my friend."

Sean looked puzzled. "What was it that you wanted from me, then?"

Liliana spoke directly to Sean, voice gone soft, but still loud enough to carry in the quiet room. "Daniel is in danger, my prince, because he has dared to call a royal prince ally, and name a spinnesehen champion. You and I are the reason Daniel's rule, his life, and his freedom are threatened." Liliana touched her prince's hand with hers. The touch was electric, making his breath catch and her voice tremble. They had been apart too long. "Once Daniel is arrested, I will not be able to protect him. I am the lion king's champion. I ask you, please, my prince, protect my king when I cannot."

Sean squeezed Liliana's hand, then turned to Daniel and bowed. "The request was unnecessary, King of Lions. Any time you spend in police custody, you will spend with two lowan officers from your own pride as your constant escorts. And you need have no fear of the Grimm."

Daniel snorted. "I'm not afraid of Nick Burkhardt. His reputation for treating wesen justly is practically legend in Portland. Wesen kids around here are starting to pretend to be him when they play. The only one who needs to be afraid of Portland's Grimm is the scum who murdered my champion's grand-nephew."

Sean turned to Liliana in surprise. "The victim was related to you?"

Liliana nodded. "From what I have seen, every lowan who has spinnesehen blood is now being targeted." Liliana automatically reached out to touch the silken hair of her tiny nephew.

Sean's eyes followed the movement. "How many lowan relatives do you have?"

Liliana shrugged. "I know of only two, little Simon here and his mother, but I lost track of my brother Jason's family. There might be many more that I …" Liliana stopped as another knock sounded at the door.

She automatically looked with her fourth eyes to see who it was, and nearly fainted.

Liliana's father, Simon of Nemea, stood outside the door, looking determined and very, very angry.


	4. Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice

"I'm so sorry about Jason, Father," Liliana whispered. "Please, don't be angry."

She knew, rationally, that the man on the other side of the door wasn't her father, any more than the man who died the night before had been her brother. But her eyes kept showing her faces from her childhood in living breathing men. Liliana depended so much on her eyes that it was very difficult to get her mind to ignore their evidence.

"Who is it, Lilly?" Daniel asked.

"He is not Simon of Nemea, no matter how much he looks like him." Liliana said it out loud, mostly to convince herself. "I believe he is a blood relative of the man who died last night, and a relative of mine, although he probably doesn't know that."

Sean wouldn't put his arm around her, not here in front of the pride, but he edged closer to her until she could feel the warmth of his body.

Liliana leaned closer.

Daniel waved permission for the door to be opened to let the newcomer in.

The man who could have been Simon of Nimea himself, stalked into the pride meeting, as if every man and woman there were his prey. His eyes, so dark blue that they looked black from a distance, practically glowed with rage. His hair was the tawny gold of a lion's pelt. He stood as tall as Sean but outweighed him by fifty pounds of pure lowan muscle.

He walked up the aisle that had been cleared for the prince, and stood before Daniel where he lounged in his big chair like any grandpa with the little boy in his lap.

Liliana touched the child's sandy gold hair. "Little Simon, meet big Simon," she whispered to herself.

The huge man who looked like Liliana's father stopped in front of Daniel. "What have you done with my brother?"

Daniel answered in a gentle tone. "You are a guest in my home, stranger. I might be able to help you get some answers, if you first gave me your name?" He made it a gentle request, showing no sign of anger at the young lowan's attitude.

The tall, powerful lowan blinked, and lost some of his surety. "Matthew Simonson." His jaws clenched hard. "What is this, some kind of sick joke? You know who I am."

Daniel shook his head, puzzled, ignoring the accusatory tone of the lowan who faced him. "I've never seen you before, nor heard your name before today." Daniel shrugged. He picked the little boy up off his lap. "Go give your mother a surprise hug from me," he told the child with an indulgent smile.

Simon giggled. It was a game Daniel and Arel played with the boy to teach him stealth. He had to sneak up on someone and give them a hug without getting caught. The game, in this case, also got him out of harm's way if the big lowan turned violent.

The big man, Matthew, had the courtesy to wait until the little boy ran up the stairs on his toes.

Daniel smiled up at the newcomer, and nodded thanks. "Now, son, what makes you think I know you?"

Some of the rage and confidence had leaked out of the big blond lowan in the face of Daniel's calm, but he held onto his anger. It covered a deeper emotion, worry. He dropped an envelope on Daniel's lap. "This was in my mailbox when I got up this morning."

Daniel looked down at the envelope. His name and address was hand written on it. That was all. "Hmph. Well, I can see why you would think that I knew you, but I didn't send this. It's not my writing." He opened the envelope and looked in. He pulled out a folded white tissue with red stains on it. When unfolded, it revealed a lock of black hair stained with blood.

Liliana made a small sound of distress. In her fourth eyes, she saw a flash of scissors as the man she had seen murdered the night before lay unconscious on a linoleum floor, somewhere far from the alley where he died. "It was Jason's," she said softly.

The huge blond lowan's dark eyes narrowed and focused on her. His lips twisted in contempt and renewed anger. "You're the spider wesen I've heard about who claims lowan blood. Did YOU send this?" He grabbed Liliana's arm hard enough to bruise. "Where is my brother?"

Sean moved slightly until he was in front of her.

The big lowan glared at him, but let go of Liliana's arm.

Liliana gently urged her prince to one side. "He is family, my prince. I will be the one to tell him."

Sean nodded understanding, but kept a wary eye on the big lion.

Matthew glared daggers at the man he now knew was Portland's prince, his lips twisted in defiant contempt. "So, it's true. The new king of lions bends knee to a human royal."

Sean's eyes went flat gray and his face lost all expression. His weight shifted to the balls of his feet.

Liliana took her cue from her king and sought to defuse the situation, not escalate it. She stepped deliberately between her prince and the big lowan.

"Matthew Simonson," Liliana said. The blond lion reluctantly transferred his attention to her. "I am Liliana, daughter of Solifu of the spinnesehen and Simon of Nemea, of the lowans."

"Am I supposed to be impressed?"

"I had two brothers who came to Portland with me three decades ago, Petros Simonson and Jason Simonson."

The big lowan blinked. "Jason Simonson is my brother."

Liliana nodded, and put a gentle hand on the lowan's huge forearm. "My brother was the first Jason Simonson. Your brother was named for mine. We're family, you and I."

The man with her father's face recoiled from her in distaste. She watched his mind with her third eyes as he first denied the possibility vehemently, then remembered family stories passed down through the generations about their legendary ancestor, Simon, the last surviving Nemean lion. It disturbed him deeply. He had a lion's pride in his supposedly pure and superior blood line, and an ugly prejudice against what he considered inferior wesen species, and a particular contempt for those of mixed blood. It was a serious shock to his world to suddenly find out that he had spider ancestry himself.

He swallowed, gritted his teeth, and dragged his mind back to the most important point. "If you don't know me, then how do you know who my brother is?"

Liliana shrugged. "I am spinnesehen. We see what others don't." In Matthew's mind, she saw a similarity to her beloved father that went beyond the skin. She wanted so badly to comfort him, but could see that her touch only disturbed this stranger with her father's face. "I'm so very sorry, Matthew. Your brother was murdered last night. I saw him die."

The big lowan staggered back a step, shaking his head, as if Liliana had shoved him hard. "No. No, he's not dead. I just talked to him yesterday. He was fine."

Liliana blinked away blurriness, and a tear fell. She blinked harder to hold them back. She didn't even know this man, Matthew. He was not her father, no matter how much he resembled him, both body and soul. He didn't know her and she didn't know him. But he had lost a brother in that alley last night, and in a strange way, so had she. She tried to reach out to him again.

He shoved her away from himself, hard. It wasn't a blow exactly, but it was close enough that Liliana had to place herself bodily between the normally very cool-headed prince and the big lowan to keep them from coming to blows.

"Forgive him, my prince," Liliana said, leaning back against Sean. "He just found out he lost a brother."

Sean backed off with a tight nod. "That will not be enough if he hits you again." He spoke to the lowan more than Liliana.

Matthew Simonson looked at him with dark eyes gone hollow, as if he looked straight through the prince.

Liliana wasn't sure if he even heard the warning.

Daniel stood up. He came eye to eye with the younger man, and outweiged him by a fair amount. He also had a weight of dignity and experience that young Matthew couldn't match. "I have tolerated a great deal from you, boy, because Liliana gave me warning about the situation you were in just before you walked in the door. But grief won't excuse violence on my champion."

Leona stepped up on the other side of her father, sword held protectively.

"This happened here, under your nose, in your city, and you did nothing," Matthew accused.

"I only just heard about the murder an hour ago, myself. My first order of business was to leave my pride in good order before I got hauled off to jail for a murder I didn't commit."

"Why should I believe anything you say?"

Daniel's voice lowered two octaves and came out through fangs. "No one questions my word. I am the king of lions," he growled.

"You are no king," Matthew growled back.

Liliana could see that the younger lowan was using anger as a shield to hold back grief. But that was an accusation that the king could not tolerate in front of his pride, and neither could his champion.

Liliana stepped forward, and bowed to Matthew. "I accept your challenge to my king's rule, Matthew Simon's son."

Matthew blinked, uncertainly, looking from the huge old lion to the tiny, graceful spider. He hadn't meant his words as a challenge, but pride and anger wouldn't let him take them back.

"I ask that you hold the challenge until after the man who murdered your brother has been caught. Then, we will decide who is king properly in the ring of honor," Liliana said.

"And what if your king is the one who killed him?" Matthew growled, fangs still long and face covered in fur.

"Then he will face justice. But Daniel is not the murderer. I saw the murderer. I did not see his face, but he is smaller than Daniel, younger, and does not limp."

"You're his champion. You would say anything to protect him."

Sean spoke softly, in his bored, controlled voice. "You only show your ignorance. Liliana doesn't know how to lie, lowan."

Matthew snorted. "Royals don't know how to tell the truth."

If Sean had been a lowan, he would have growled. If he were less tightly controlled, he would have woged. As it was, his jaw muscles jumped on the side of his face.

Daniel shook his head. "Son, you're in a hole. It's time to stop digging. The prince has kept every promise he has made to me or any member of my pride, and every threat for that matter. As for Lilly." He waved at the room, directing Matthew's attention to their rapt, and increasingly tense audience. "Does my champion always tell the truth?" he asked the pride leaders.

Everyone in the room nodded. "Always," said Blanche Morgan, an elderly lowan woman who sat in one of the more comfortable places closest to the king, both in respect to her old bones and to her wisdom. "Anna is bluntly, unfailingly, annoyingly honest."

Liliana smiled, and several other people chuckled nervously. She bowed slightly to the old lowan. "It's a fair description."

One of the lions, the one who had been opening the door for people, lifted his nose. He sniffed the air and looked around nervously. David's grandmother had been a blutbad. Some lowans looked down on him about it, but no one could deny that he had the best sense of smell in the pride.

"I smell a Grimm," David Clark said.

Liliana looked outside with her fourth eyes. Nick and Hank had just gotten out of their car in the driveway.

There was a nervous murmur from the pride, some expressions of fear, and a few lions looked ready to bolt, but they looked to their king for guidance.

Matthew Simonson growled low. He crouched, ready to pounce, and faced the door, claws and fangs bared.

Daniel smacked him lightly on the back of the head to get his attention.

Matthew turned on him with a snarl. "Until the challenge is fought, boy, I am still your king. The Grimm of Portland is our justice. Let him do his job." He raised his voice to carry to the rest of the room. "Everyone else, pride meeting is adjourned. Leave through the back door now, please. My daughter will take care of any pride business in my absence. Her word is now mine."

Leona paused in the act of putting the sword on a decorative rack on the wall to swallow hard. It was a lot of responsibility to put on a woman who hadn't yet seen twenty-three.

Matthew was thrown off balance again by the king of lions taking the news of a Grimm on his doorstep so calmly.

Daniel called to the lowan with the exceptionally good nose, who was one of his foremen in his construction business. "David, you're in charge at the shop until this mess is cleared up."

Liliana knew Sean had to go as well, but she clung to his hand. "I miss you."

His thumb brushed her cheek. "Be careful, little spider. If the killer is targeting your family, it won't be long until he targets you. I'll send officers to your house to keep watch."

Liliana smiled and shook her head. "You would only make them targets, my prince. The only police officer I want at my house is my favorite captain."

Sean chuckled. "That can be arranged." He brushed his lips against her forehead and left through the back door just as Nick knocked on the front.


	5. The Purpose of the Pride

The Purpose of the Pride

David, the lowan construction foreman with a blutbad's sensitive nose, paced nervously by the door. "You should go, too, Mr. Samson. That's not just an ordinary cop out there. A Grimm isn't going to listen to a lowan. He'll just assume you're guilty."

"Let them in, Dave," Daniel said. "This Grimm isn't what we've been raised to expect, so Lilly tells me, and so does every other wesen who has encountered him. I'm actually looking forward to looking this Grimm in the eye."

The last pride members were still filing out the door when David reluctantly let Nick and Hank in.

They flashed badges, but David barely paid attention. He already knew who they were. He couldn't stop staring at Nick and swallowing nervously. He stumbled backward as the Grimm and his partner came in.

The two detectives saw the last few lowans still filing out the back door, some glancing back to get their own nervous looks at the local Grimm. "Did we interrupt something?" Hank asked.

"A meeting of a local club, officer. That's all," Daniel said. "We were just finishing up when you knocked."

Liliana said, "A pride leader's meeting of the lowans of Oregon."

Daniel looked at her, sighed, and shook his head. "Lilly, you are terrible at keeping secrets."

"I am very good at keeping secrets, but this is not a secret that should be kept. Detective Hank now knows the true face of the world. And Nick and Hank need to know as much as they can, including information about the pride, if they are going to find the killer."

Daniel hrumphed, irritably. "Well, at least let me do the telling next time. That's twice today that you've made decisions for me."

Liliana bowed slightly. "Apologies. I have been making decisions on my own for a long time. I'm not used to having someone else to answer to."

Daniel turned to the two detectives. "So, you're Nick Berkhardt, the Grimm I've been hearing so much about." He extended a hand to Nick. "Pleased to meet you, although I wish it were under better circumstances."

"You must be Daniel Samson, the new leader of the lowans," Nick said. "This is my partner, Detective Hank Griffon." Nick squeezed Daniel's massive hand. "I don't usually get that warm a greeting when I meet wesen for the first time."

Daniel smiled. "My champion seems to think you hung the moon."

Liliana tilted her head sideways. "That is ridiculous. Nick is a Grimm. He has nothing to do with the moon."

Hank chuckled.

Nick grinned and his cheeks pinked a little.

Liliana could not, for the life of her, figure out what she had said that was funny.

Matthew snarled. "Is this the way you always treat suspected murderers, or do you just not care because the victim was lowan?"

Nick's smile faded. "And you are?"

Liliana made the introduction. "Matthew Simonson. He is Jason Simonson's brother."

Nick sobered completely. "I'm sorry for your loss. What brings you here? The pride meeting?"

"I was looking for my brother," Matthew growled. Liliana could see that he still held on to anger to hold back the tide of grief threatening to overwhelm him. He still fought against believing in his brother's death.

Daniel handed Nick the envelope with his name and address on it, and the bloody lock of Jason's hair inside. "Matthew found this in his mailbox this morning. The handwriting isn't mine, but Lilly says the lock of hair definitely belongs to Matthew's brother."

Nick took the envelope gingerly by the corner.

Hank pulled out a Ziploc bag and Nick put it in carefully.

"How do you know the hair is the victim's?" Hank asked Lilly.

"When I touched the lock of hair, I saw a flash of the killer cutting it off with scissors while Jason was unconscious."

"You didn't mention anything about the killer cutting off hair in the alley," Hank pointed out.

"It did not happen in the alley. Whoever took Jason fought and defeated him somewhere else, and only brought him to the alley to make sure that Nick would find the body."

"What else did you see, Lilly?" Nick asked. "Where was he?"

"I am sorry, Nick. I only saw a momentary image. Just a flash of black-gloved hands with metal scissors cutting Jason's hair as he lay unconscious and bloody on a pink linoleum floor. It could have been anywhere."

Matthew tensed next to her. "What color did you say the linoleum was?"

Liliana blinked at the odd question. "It was pink, with small black diamonds in the pattern."

"That's Jason's kitchen in his house in Tillamook. He used to gripe about the crappy pink linoleum his landlord picked. He hates that pattern." Matthew's big hands started to shake. He pushed his blond shaggy hair back from his face. "Oh, God, is he really dead?"

"I'm sorry, Matthew." Liliana almost reached for his arm again, but stopped herself. The big lowan who looked like her father would not take comfort from her touch. "Nick, I think Matthew needs to see the body of his brother to accept the truth."

Nick nodded understanding. "The coroner is doing an autopsy Mr. Simonson. You should be able to come down to the station and give a positive identification, but it will be a few days before you can take the body."

Matthew nodded without speaking. He was losing his hold on anger as he began to truly believe that his brother might be gone. He had thought Jason kidnapped but alive, and expected some sort of ransom or blackmail demand from Daniel when he got here.

Liliana saw flashes of faces in Matthew's mind, young men that he laughed with and fought beside in military uniform. Then the same faces with blind staring eyes splattered with blood. There were a lot of those faces in the big lowan's mind. Matthew was no stranger to grief. His mind was already shadowed and wounded by it. His soul recoiled in horror from adding his brother's face to the long list. It wasn't something he could accept, not and still go on.

Nick asked Matthew, "Can you tell me where you were last night between nine and eleven?"

"I was at home," Matthew said numbly. "I got off work about seven, ordered a pizza and tinkered with my old T-Bird for a few hours."

"Could anyone verify where you were?" Hank asked.

"Just the pizza delivery guy." Matthew's lost look hardened to anger again. "Am I a suspect now?"

Nick held up a hand. "We ask everyone involved the same questions." He took out his notebook and wrote down some notes.

"Aren't you going to ask him where he was, Grimm?" Matthew gritted through clenched teeth, pointing at Daniel. "His name was on that envelope."

"Of course. Mr. Samson?"

"I was working until past midnight, going over plans and trying to juggle schedules for contractors and materials for three different jobs. And no, I don't have anyone who can verify that." He gestured to David, still by the door. "David left about eight. After that, I was alone."

David nodded confirmation. "I left at eight fifteen. Went home to the missus. Mr. Samson was still buried in blueprints and materials lists. I asked if he needed any help, but he said it was something he had to figure out for himself."

Nick stepped toward the man, and asked, "Can I get your full name?"

David woged nervously, and took a half step back when the Grimm turned his full attention on him. He swallowed hard, got himself under control and said, "David Clark. I'm … I'm a foreman for Samson Construction."

Nick just nodded and gave the man a reassuring smile. "Thank you, Mr. Clark. I appreciate the help."

David smiled back hesitantly. Not everyone believed the stories about the compassionate Grimm, but Nick had just made one more believer.

Daniel sighed and smiled a little sadly. "Well, it's good to know the stories about you are true, Nick Berkhardt, because I think you're about to have to arrest me."

Nick looked back at him with a raised eyebrow. "Forensics hasn't gotten the results back on the evidence yet. Aside from Lilly telling me that you're being framed and this envelope, I've got nothing concrete to tie you to the murder. If your handwriting doesn't match, you'll be free until forensics finishes their tests."

Daniel said, "Well, I'll save you some time then, son. You've got a tough job, and I'll try not to make it any harder. The watch and reading glasses are both mine. They've been missing for about a week."

"Did you report them as stolen?" Hank asked.

Daniel shook his head. "I haven't worn that watch in years. Didn't know it was missing until Lilly told me to look for it. As for the reading glasses, I just thought I was having a senior moment. I thought they'd turn up eventually."

"Has there been any sign that your house was broken into?" Hank asked.

Leona spoke up. She had been listening quietly, one step behind and to the right of her father, a bodyguard's position. "No one broke into this house. I would know."

Hank asked who she was.

"I am Leona Samson, Daniel's daughter. And I was here last night. My mother, Arel Samson, and Marilyn Kramer can both verify that. We were watching Hotel Transylvania with Simon until almost ten when we put him to bed."

A very stealthy little lion who had crept down the stairs while the adults talked, suddenly launched himself onto Nick's leg and hugged him with a growly squeal.

Nick jumped half a foot, and dropped his notebook.

Lilly chuckled. "You have been ambushed by a descendent of Simon of Nemea, Grimm. You should probably yield."

"You got me," Nick said, while looking down at the boy who had a tight hold on his thigh. "Pouncing on Grimms can be dangerous, though." He went down on one knee and tickled the boy. "How do you know I'm not going to chop off your head?"

Simon giggled, then squared his little shoulders and lifted his chin. "I'm not afraid. Aunt Lilly said you were a nice Grimm. She said you rescue lost wesen children, and take bad wesen to jail. Aunt Lilly always tells the truth."

"Well, I guess I'll let you slide this time." Nick ruffled the little boy's hair and picked up his notebook.

"Brave kid," Hank remarked. "Most adults react to Nick like he's going to eat them."

"Simon has his namesake's courage," Liliana said proudly and opened her arms to the little one.

Simon ran to her and she scooped him up.

Her lips tightened as she again saw a flash of death in the little boy's near future. "Simon and his mother are in very serious danger, Nick."

"From what?" Nick asked.

"The man who killed Jason Simonson. I keep seeing flashes of death, but I have not had the peace to search for more information. I am so very afraid for my nephew and my niece. It is hard for me to make the visions clear." She hugged the little boy tight, and he hugged her back.

"Don't be afraid, Aunt Lilly. It'll be okay," the little boy said.

"Do you want us to put them in protective custody?" Nick asked.

Liliana shook her head. "I feel like they will only be safe when they have left Oregon. They are packing to leave now. Even the police station does not seem safe. I have seen flashes of Daniel's death at the station itself."

"He'll be safe with us, Lilly," Hank assured her. "But honestly, at this point, we don't have enough evidence to have a reason to arrest him."

Daniel said, "That's because you haven't dug deep enough yet."

Nick and Hank shared a look. Nick said, "What do you mean?"

Daniel sighed. "Well, I expect at some point you'll get around to asking me if I knew the young man who was killed."

Nick asked the obvious question. "Did you know Jason Simonson?"

"I never met him in person, but two days ago, he called me and issued a challenge." Daniel ran a hand over his close cropped wiry hair. "The pride meeting this morning was originally called to discuss the challenge with him in person. I wanted to try and talk him out of it face-to-face. Jason was supposed to be the one stalking into the meeting and throwing the gauntlet at my feet. His brother ended up doing it for him."

Hank and Nick glanced at each other again. They had been partners long enough that they seemed to say a lot to each other without bothering with words. "That does give him a motive," Hank said.

"You said you didn't know me when I came in!" Matthew accused Daniel.

"I didn't." Daniel shrugged. "Your brother, on the other hand, has been very vocal about how he feels about having a lowan king who got his throne handed to him by a spider wesen, and who allies with a royal. Vic Rockford, the pride leader of Tillamook, mentioned your brother's name a few times. Vic seems to be a good leader, but he warned me Jason Simonson was a bit of a hothead and would probably challenge one day."

Matthew woged and growled, "You didn't want him to challenge, so you killed him!" He lunged for Daniel, claws out.

Daniel took a step back.

Liliana and Nick used identical footsweeps from opposite sides to take both of Matthew's feet out from under him.

The massive lowan face planted on the rug, which only made him angrier.

Liliana handed little Simon to Daniel, and Leona pulled them both behind her.

Nick had already applied an arm lock to the big lowan to keep him down, but the lowan knew the counter. Matthew twisted and shot out a long leg, taking Nick down.

Hank drew his gun and pointed it at the big man with the even bigger teeth. Matthew was in full woge, and Hank could see his snarling lion's face. "Freeze! Or, you'll join your brother in the morgue!"

Matthew's mind was so filled with tearing grief and rage that the gun in his face looked like a welcome escape.

Liliana saw it all a moment before it would have happened. Matthew, the man with her father's face, would lunge at Hank and Hank would pull the trigger. And the line of Jason son of Simon would end.

Liliana stepped in between them, back to Hank's gun. There was a possibility that Hank would still pull the trigger, but it was small. The detective's training emphasized not firing his weapon unless absolutely necessary, and certainly not at the back of a civilian.

Liliana took the full, enraged charge of the giant lowan. She ducked under his reaching arms, caught him around the waist and turned, spilling some of the force of his charge in a circle, so he didn't plow her down, and off to the side, so they both missed Hank.

Matthew landed on his back at the end of his own lunge, with the spider wesen crouched on top of him. Surprise pierced the fog of emotion clouding the lowan's judgment.

Liliana touched his face gently. "Getting yourself killed will not bring back your brother. Would Jason want you to die like this?"

Matthew growled up at her, but the tawny golden eyes filled with liquid. He held on so hard to anger because he feared that the grief would be more than he could bear. "What do you care?"

"I lost the second to the last of my brother Jason's family in that alley last night. I do not wish to lose the last." Liliana stroked his cheek where he blinked back the tears that threatened. "And if you die today, Matthew Simon's son, who will help me find the man who murdered my brother's great-grandson?"

"I already know who killed him," he growled, but the rage was spilling out of him. "The false king just admitted that Jason called challenge on him. He knew he couldn't win, so he had him killed."

"You forget that Daniel would not have been the one to fight your brother."

"You!" Matthew growled.

"I did not kill your brother either. The murderer threatens my family, too, including you."

"Me?"

Liliana nodded. "I have seen your death at his hands as well. All who share the blood of Simon of Nimea are targets. For the second time in history, someone seeks to make the Nemean lions extinct."

Matthew's mind was filled with shadows and blood, death and pain. His brother had been his one tie to life. Liliana moved off of the lowan's chest, put her feet under her. "A son of Simon should not throw himself in front of a bullet. He should fight to the last breath." Liliana had seen in Matthew's mind how much he craved the death Hank's gun had promised.

The big lowan blushed with shame as he switched back to his human face.

Liliana held her hand out to him. "Do not throw your life away. Help me find the true killer, and make him pay for Jason's death."

Matthew eyed her hand suspiciously. "Everyone says you always tell the truth. Is that what you and the Grimm are really going to do? Hunt down Jason's killer, bring him to justice?"

"This murderer intends to kill my little nephew and his mother. Nick is a cop as well as a Grimm. If he can, he will arrest the murderer, and see that he faces justice."

Nick nodded agreement, but still had his gun pointed at the tall lowan.

Liliana woged and snarled, showing her much smaller fangs in a fierce smile. "I am a spider protecting her family. If I find this murderer before Nick does, I will rip his lungs out and feed them to him." She pushed her hand toward Matthew again. "Join me on this hunt, son of the son of the son of my brother."

Matthew nodded tightly and took her hand. "You are not what I expected, and neither is your Grimm."

Liliana tilted her head, wondering what he had expected of her. Nick was never what wesen expected.

Matthew ducked his head as he stood and faced the two detectives with guns drawn. The big man's cheeks were red with shame and the aftermath of anger. "Jason was the only family I had left. After I got back from Afghanistan, I guess I gave up. Jason gave me a job on his fishing boat and a reason to go on breathing. Without him, I just …" He shrugged. His lips tightened into a thin line and his jaws clenched so hard his teeth had to hurt.

Hank put his gun away slowly. "Next time you want to commit suicide, jump off a bridge," he told the big lowan. "I don't need the paperwork."

Nick put his gun away as well. "You lost your brother. I get it," he said. "But we're trying to stop a murderer before he kills again. Don't become part of the problem."

Daniel pushed past Leona, holding little Simon in his arms. He squeezed the big blond lowan's shoulder. "You've got a pride, boy. You're not alone. You'll never be alone."

Leona stood on Matthew's other side and touched his arm. Liliana still held onto his hand.

David Clark, the lowan with blutbad blood, shyly touched the big man's arm as if uncertain if his touch would be welcome.

Marilyn and Arel had brought luggage down the stairs shortly after Simon did his sneak attack on the Grimm. They had seen the big man's outburst of rage and his admission of the pain that drove it.

The two lionesses walked past the detectives as if they weren't there and went to their pride member. Arel put a hand on his other shoulder, smiled a welcome into the eyes of the young man who had threatened her husband, and kissed his cheek.

Marilyn put her arms around his waist and hugged this man she'd never met before. "My mother's maiden name was Simonson." Marilyn was nearly five ten, but her head only reached as high as Matthew's shoulder. "It's good to meet you, cousin," she said and held onto him.

Matthew found himself surrounded by pride members, holding and touching and welcoming.

The big man swallowed hard. "You people don't even know me."

Little Simon leaned over from Daniel's arms. "Don't be sad," he said. "You can be my uncle." He hugged the big lowan's neck and gave him a sloppy kiss.

Matthew closed his eyes for a moment in the circle of his pride, and Liliana saw something heal inside his soul. Matthew was still filled with anger and pain, but Liliana knew that he would not deliberately charge a bullet again.

After a moment, Matthew opened his eyes, faced Nick and Hank, face filled with a sense of wonder. "I'll help in any way I can. Just tell me what you need."

David dropped his hand from Matthew's arm and lifted his nose in the air. "I smell gasoline." He wrinkled his nose. "And skalengeck."

Liliana looked outside with her fourth eyes and saw two men in balaclavas with gas cans pouring it around the house and lighting it. Another man and a woman had rifles and were waiting to shoot anyone who came out the front or back doors.

"Now is your chance to help, Matthew. Since all of the people that our enemy wants dead are in one place, he has decided to take advantage of the opportunity." She looked up at the big man who had visions of bombs and bullets and blood haunting his mind until a big part of him had craved the peace of death. "We are under attack."

(Next: Fire and Bullets)


	6. Fire and Bullets

Fire and Bullets

Liliana gave everyone a quick rundown of the situation. Two people on the sides of the house pouring gasoline, getting ready to set the house ablaze, and two more, one at the front door, one at the back, hanging back in the trees, waiting to shoot anyone who tried to leave the house.

Daniel handed Simon to Marilyn, kissed his wife, Arel, and nodded. Arel grabbed a poker from the fireplace and shepherded Marilyn, who clung tightly to her son, toward a closet under the staircase that had an inconspicuous door. "We're going to hide so the bad people won't find us," Marilyn told Simon. "You have to be quiet, but you don't have to worry. Uncle Daniel will take care of them."

"And Nick!" Simon said. "He takes the bad wesen to jail."

"You bet I will." Nick smiled his dazzling smile, and the boy grinned back, confident that the Grimm his Aunt Lilly told him stories about would beat the bad guys.

Daniel pulled down the crossed swords on the wall, handed one to Leona, and kept the other one for himself. "Matthew, if you're with us, then go with Lilly, Leona, Hank and Nick to the second floor."

Matthew said, "If these people killed Jason, you couldn't stop me from going after them." His dark eyes were haunted with visions of bombs, bullets and blood.

Lilly put a hand on his arm and this time, he didn't pull away.

Matthew still didn't see family when he looked at her, but he saw pride. He saw someone he needed to protect, another face that he refused to add to the dead faces in his memory.

Daniel pointed at Hank and Nick's guns. "You're the only ones who can take out the two shooters. Lilly can help you spot them." He looked Nick in the eye. "There may not be a chance to take these men to jail, Nick Berkhardt. They're trying to burn down my home and slaughter my family."

Nick's jaws gritted tight. "I won't let that happen."

Hank nodded agreement, determination hard on his face.

Daniel put a hand on his daughter Leona's arm. "Are you sure you can do this, baby girl?"

The six foot lioness growled low and lifted the sword. "They dare to threaten my family and my pride. I was born for this."

Daniel grinned. "That's my girl. All right, you and Matthew, go to opposite sides of the house. Lilly will show you the best windows to jump from. You'll have to take on the two men with gasoline hand-to-hand. If you can surprise them, so much the better."

"What about you, my king, and David?" Liliana asked.

Daniel hefted the massive broadsword, and David grabbed a kitchen knife over a foot long. "We'll take care of any of them who get past the rest of you. No one will get to Arel, Marilyn and the squirt. Not without going through me first."

Liliana tilted her head and looked around the house again with her fourth eyes. The future was all in flux. She could not see forward in time unless she focused on a single thing and right now, she needed to see on all sides. They might all die, or some of them might die. That possibility seemed very likely. But they would at least take some of their attackers with them. She would make sure of that.

A part of her wished that her prince had not left, but if he had stayed, he would be in danger as well. It was better that he was safe.

Daniel swallowed. "Pay attention to Lilly," he told them all. "She's your eyes. And just … don't get killed." His eyes lingered on his only child when he said the last.

Everyone nodded and ran up the stairs, leaving the big elder lion hefting his sword and stationing himself by the front door while David hefted a big butcher knife and guarded the back.

Liliana ran up the stairs first and directed people to their stations. Nick she sent straight to the front, Hank to the back, Matthew to one side of the house, Leona to the other. She stood in the center of the upper floor at the top of the stairs, and used her fourth eyes to coordinate their attack.

The men on either side of the house had emptied their gas cans and were pulling out lighters.

Leona and Matthew both jumped, Matthew armed just with himself, and Leona with the ceremonial but functional King's Champion sword.

Lilly couldn't watch in all four directions at once, and see outcomes. For once in her life, she didn't have enough eyes. She looked ahead one at a time. First, she checked on Matthew, her newest family member, speeding forward in time to see how he would do.

Matthew landed as if the ten foot drop was nothing, light as a cat. The goon with the lighter in his hand never knew what hit him. But the lighter dropped in the gasoline soaked grass at his feet. Flames raced across the lawn and licked at the side of the old house.

Thinking on his feet, the big lowan grabbed a garden hose, turned it on full force and fought the flames.

Liliana checked on Leona. She made a sound when she landed, and the man on that side saw her. He pulled a gun out of his jacket. She all but took his hand off at the wrist.

He hissed in agony and she saw his forked tongue. Skalengeck.

Leona didn't kill the skalengeck. The young woman had never killed anyone in her life. But a smack to the face with the flat of her blade followed by a solid blow to the back of the skull with the hilt, and he would be safely out of action.

Hank talked quietly into his phone, requesting backup.

Liliana jumped forward in time and saw a jumble of many outcomes regarding police arriving. Nothing very clear, but the possibility of death always stood out first. She shouted, "Hank, make sure you give descriptions of Matthew and Leona, so your backup knows who is on our side." At least that way, none of their own would be taken out by friendly fire.

She heard Hank start to follow her directions.

Nick yelled, "I don't see anyone, Lilly. Where is the shooter?"

Liliana turned her attention to the front of the house where Nick tried in vain to spot the sniper hidden behind the decorative fence and pretty hemlock tree at the front of the Samson's driveway. "Nick, the shooter is behind the tree to the right of the mailbox. She has a rifle with a scope. Watch for the flash of light on the scope."

"I see her now," he shouted back from the tall window in the front master bedroom. "I don't think she's in range of my pistol, though."

Four more men pulled up, got out of a black four-door car, and pulled down masks to hide their faces. "We have four more enemies." Lilly shouted. "They have handguns in holsters."

"I see them," Nick said.

"If we can get the back door clear, we might be able to escape that way," Liliana said, seeing a possibility.

Hank fired a shot. "I winged the shooter by the back door."

Liliana looked and saw the man down and bleeding. He would no longer be a threat. "Well done, Hank. One less enemy, and our escape is clear to the back." She looked ahead in time. There was again too many possibilities to sort, but far too many of them involved death. "NO! We can't go out that way."

Liliana turned her attention to the front of the house again.

The men in front drew their guns when they heard the shot. She followed their actions and the actions of the sniper forward in time.

Nick opened the window he stood by, fired at the feet of one of the men in front. "Police! Stay back! I'll shoot to kill if I have to."

Liliana ran to the front bedroom even while the words were leaving Nick's mouth. She dove on the Grimm, and dragged him to the ground just as a rifle shot rang out. A bullet hole pierced the window where he had been standing a moment before.

"Silly Grimm," Liliana said. "They intend to burn the house down with you in it. They do not deserve a warning shot."

Liliana looked quickly outside while she still lay on the pleasantly warm body of her favorite Grimm. "This is bad. Two are coming in the front door. Two are going around the sides. The sniper is staying hidden. You and Hank, go help Daniel and David. Stay away from the windows."

Liliana had a choice to make. Nick and Hank ran to help downstairs, but Matthew and Leona were alone on opposite sides of the house. Each lowan would shortly be faced by an attacker with a gun, and they had nothing but hands and hand weapons.

Leona had been Liliana's friend for months and was her protégé in many ways.

She had never met Matthew Simonson before today.

Liliana saw them both go down with her fourth eyes. Both would be shot in seconds if she did nothing, Matthew twice in the chest and once in the head, Leona once, in the shoulder, then a few minutes later, in the forehead. Death. Very certain. For both.

Liliana ran and dove through the open window in the bedroom with the Lion King bedspread and the Jedi action figures. She touched a spinneret to the window sill as she flew through, flipped and swung on her line around in an arc, feet first.

Her feet struck the chest of a masked man with a gun in hand.

The gun went off, but fired wild. The goon went down.

Liliana landed, feet astride the enemy. She flicked out her arm blade and dropped. Her full weight drove it through the man below her, through his rib cage, through his heart, through a few inches of grass and soil beneath him.

She flinched as she heard a shot from the other side of the house.

She wrenched her blade free of the ground and the man's still twitching body and ran. Hank had taken down the shooter in back, so that way was clear of enemies. She ran behind the house, racing for all she was worth. If she heard a second shot, she would know she was too late.

Matthew Simonson ran at her heels. Alive. Liliana had chosen her family over her friend.

But there was still a chance that she could save Leona, if she could only run faster.

Matthew's long legs outdistanced her.

He rounded the corner of the house first, and saw the man standing over Leona. The brave lioness was bleeding and down, but conscious. The masked man carefully aimed his gun at Leona's forehead.

The lioness snarled defiance, but she was defenseless.

Matthew didn't hesitate. He kept right on running.

So did Liliana.

The man with the gun looked up.

He saw the giant lowan and the tiny spinnesehen both running at him as fast as they could. He took a step back in startlement, then raised his gun, aimed it at the biggest, most formidable looking opponent. And …

Shots rang out from inside the house.

The enemy staggered to one side. His gun went off, aimed way wide of his original mark.

Something hit Liliana hard in the thigh. Liliana stumbled, and fell. The pain struck a moment later, like a searing line of fire. Blood followed in a flood. That was bad. She grabbed tight to the wound, trying to hold back the blood that gushed between her fingers in time with her heartbeat. Not good.

Matthew took out the already wounded enemy with a single punch.

Leona sat up, shoulder wound bleeding, but not dangerously. She staggered over to Liliana and sat beside her.

Liliana looked inside the house with her fourth eyes.

Nick was the one who shot their attacker. He had spotted their trouble, ignored Liliana's warning to stay away from the windows, and shot their enemy.

Daniel took one gunman out with a single slash of his heavy sword just as the man came in the door, but the other man aimed his gun at Nick, who had just saved Matthew's life and was still staring out the side window, watching as Liliana fell.

Some instinct warned the Grimm, and he looked up, but not soon enough.

David leapt to protect Nick, and fell, bullet in his heart.

Hank shot the masked intruder.

Nick held the body of David Clark, the lowan with a blutbad's sense of smell, and fought tears. "Thank you," he whispered.

"Tell Carey I love her." David sighed, and his eyes lost their light.

Only the sniper in front survived. Liliana watched the masked woman jump in her car and drive away, tires leaving rubber on Daniel's driveway. Liliana made sure that she saw the license plate, and while she didn't know how to tell what kind of car it was, she noted the symbols on it, so she could draw them for Nick and Hank later.

That is, if she had a later.

Blood pulsed between her fingers.

Leona reached over, one hand over her own bleeding shoulder, and held the spider girl's small pale hand. "You're going to be all right, Lilly."

Liliana looked at Leona's future and was relieved to see that Leona's wound would heal. Her own wound, on the other hand, was fatal. She could not see her own future well, but she didn't need a spinnesehen's vision to know that she was dying.

"I am not going to be all right. I am bleeding to death," she told the lioness. "Tell my prince that I love him, and to keep fighting."

Leona nodded. "I'll tell him."

She squeezed Leona's bloody hand. "I am sorry I did not come sooner, Leona. But if I had, Matthew would have died."

Matthew dropped to his knees beside her. "You're not going to die."

"The large artery in my thigh is severed," Liliana said. "I will be dead in minutes."

Matthew growled. "I am Not. Losing. Any. More. PEOPLE!" he roared. He ripped a section of her skirt off, wadded it into a ball. Pushing her hand aside, he shoved it hard against her wound.

Liliana flinched at the pain, but smiled. "You are so much like my father. I am glad that I had the chance to know you."

He yanked off his belt and fed the end through the buckle around her leg. He put the buckle over the wad of shirt, quickly turning scarlet. He yanked hard.

The pain made Liliana nauseous. She lay back in the grass and looked at the sky. The clouds moved slowly. She watched them dance into the future, amazed at how many possible patterns they might make over the next few days.

She heard sirens and smelled smoke and gasoline.

The clouds covered her in gray.


	7. Spiders Are Hard to Kill

Spiders Are Hard to Kill

Liliana woke up. She was rather surprised by that fact.

She knew she was in a hospital before she opened her eyes. The smell of rubbing alcohol and bleach was a dead giveaway. The muffled sounds of rhythmic beeping, soft-soled footsteps and intercoms clinched it.

Liliana had generally only been in hospitals when someone else was sick or injured. The bed she lay in felt starchy and too hard and the pillow was in entirely the wrong place. And she had no idea what time it was, or even what day. There was no tick-tocking. No clocks. What kind of civilized place had no clocks?

The crook of her arm was itchy. She suspected an IV.

She opened just her human eyes first. The light was off, in the sterile white room, but enough light leaked in from under the door to see reasonably well. Unsurprisingly, she saw the dark red bag suspended over her with the clear plastic tube running into her arm.

She switched to her second eyes. They saw better in dim light, and let her see all around at once. The room was pretty dull. The only interesting thing was the very tall, darkly handsome man sitting in the chair beside her.

Sean's elbows rested on his knees, leaning forward, with his hands clasped in front of his face. In some people, it might have been a pose of prayer. In her prince, it simply meant that he was deep in thought. She watched him for a time with her second eyes without moving. After a time, he scrubbed over his face with his hands and sighed.

Tears?

No. Not from Sean. If Liliana died, he might cry. More likely, he would rage. Sean was a lot better at expressing anger than sadness or grief. Anger was safe. No one would take advantage of his vulnerability if he showed anger. They would steer clear of him if they had any sense.

Liliana smiled a little. She would have felt sorry for Nick and Hank, if they had to deal with their captain after her death. But they would not have to. Apparently, she had not died.

"What time is it?" she asked Sean. She thought it might be nighttime, but wasn't sure of what day. Why didn't hospital rooms have clocks?

Sean gasped in surprise. "You're awake!"

"Obviously. What time is it? Is it tonight or tomorrow, or the day after?" She opened all of her eyes for a moment, but that didn't help. Her fourth eyes showed her the hospital room being built, and flashes of every patient who had been in there, and their worried loved ones, as well as many patients and their friends and family who were probably going to be there one day.

She shut her fourth eyes, but kept the rest open. Her third eyes showed her the worry and fear in her prince that he would never speak of.

He smiled and engulfed her cold hand in the rich warmth of both of his. "It's tonight of the same day you got shot." He looked at his very nice gold watch. "Actually, it's very early tomorrow, about three AM." Sean was one of the few people who almost always understood Liliana. Communication with him was easier than with anyone else.

Liliana felt better, knowing when she was. Anchoring herself in current time was the only way to make sense of what she saw in her fourth eyes. Without that anchor, she never knew if she saw what had been, what was, or what might be. "Why am I not dead?" she asked, and looked backward to the day before.

"It seems that Matthew Simonson had combat medic training, and applied a tourniquet that stopped you from bleeding to death."

While Sean spoke, Liliana watched the big blond lowan with her father's face struggle to keep her alive the day before. Paramedics arrived just after she passed out. They gave her plasma immediately and had blood of something vaguely like her type flowing into her within minutes. She would have been dead before those minutes, though, if the tourniquet Matthew applied had not slowed her bleeding.

"You never met my father," she said to Sean, wishing wistfully that he could have.

"He died before I was born," Sean pointed out.

"Now, you have met my father," she said. "Matthew Simon's son, is so much like Simon of Nimea, both in body and in soul, that I have a hard time remembering not to call him Pater."

Sean raised a single dark brow. "I think that explains a lot about you."

Liliana smiled. "You will understand me even more tomorrow, then."

"Why is that?"

"I have a problem and I need your help."

Sean rubbed her slim fingers between his long ones, and smiled with as much warmth as she had ever seen him express, but his voice was edged with anger. "You have a problem besides scaring me senseless by nearly bleeding to death?"

"That problem is already solved," Liliana said. She held up her other arm with the tube and the blood flowing into her body.

He shook his head, and the anger took stronger hold. "Only by sheerest luck. Liliana, you have to be more careful." He gripped her hand almost painfully tight. "I won't lose you."

She squeezed back. "Je suis à toi, mon prince, pour toujours." French spoke to Sean's heart. Liliana's heart was his forever. She didn't know if he could make the same promise anymore, with the spell eating away inside him, but she knew she would never be able to stop loving him, regardless.

"Forever will not be very long if you get yourself killed," he said, but the edge of anger sounded less sharp in his deep voice.

"I will do my best not to get shot again, my prince. I promise."

Sean's lips twitched in one of the tiny amused smiles that slipped past his control, even when he wanted to be angry with her. "Well, then I suppose you should tell me what it is you need help with."

"The plane carrying my sister, Isabella, and her daughter, Ariadne, will arrive at 2:24 tomorrow. They are coming to live with me. They will need a ride from the airport. I was going to meet them with a cab, but …" She gestured to the tubes feeding desperately needed blood into her arm.

"I look forward to meeting your sister." Liliana saw in his mind that he was intrigued. He looked forward to meeting the woman who had been married to Marnassier, the mauvais dente assassin, for two hundred years.

"The garage and attic have already been converted to a little apartment for them." For weeks, Liliana had stressed about how her picky, aristocratic sister would feel about being crammed into her little garage. Now, when the time came, Liliana wouldn't even be there. She rubbed Sean's fingers nervously. "Please, make them feel welcome for me, since I cannot."

Sean nodded a slight bow to her "I will do my best."

Liliana sighed with relief. She could not have asked for a better ambassador than the always elegant man who in many ways ruled the city. Isabella could hardly feel slighted when greeted by a prince.

"I am glad that it was you, my prince."

Two raised eyebrows asked as much as his words. "What was me?"

"I am glad that it was you who was sitting here when I woke up," she said. "And …" Liliana guided the back of Sean's huge hand to her lips and kissed it. "I am glad that it was you who won my heart."

He swallowed some strong emotion, adam's apple bobbing, face gone flat.

Liliana's third eyes pierced right past his mask, now that he had given his permission for her to watch his thoughts whenever needed. He had been so very afraid that she would die. Her fragility had hit him hard. She was his fierce little spider who killed lions with a single blow and had outlived all her enemies. He wasn't supposed to ever have to face losing her.

"I heal fast," she told him gently. "I will be fine in a few days."

He nodded, but it wasn't enough to reassure him. In his mind, she saw a reflection of herself, pale and cold and tiny in the hospital bed with tubes keeping her alive. This was not the Liliana he knew. She was the woman who saved his life while ignoring a knife stuck in her leg. She spat defiance into the face of the huge mauvais dente. He had watched her fight three challengers to the lowan king's throne, and dance each lion into submission or death.

With a shock, Liliana realized that in Sean's mind, she had been invincible. Her brush with death made it all too clear to him that he could lose her, just like anyone else, and how very dearly such a loss would cost him.

She took her hand from the warmth of his and laid it on his cheek. She could feel the muscle in his jaw clenched hard. "I will fight with every breath that is in me to always come back to you, my prince."

He closed his eyes for a moment. "You better."

Liliana pulled him to her.

The prince claimed her lips in a kiss that was demanding and rough and gave her no quarter for being ill.

Liliana held his head close, fingers in the velvety softness of his thick short-cropped hair, and kissed him back with the same fierce desire. She was not dead and it had been far too long since her prince had shared the big bed he bought with her.

Her kiss reassured him where no amount of words could have. She saw his fear and worry ease, and flow into desire. His hands came up to cradle her face, careful and controlled, but filled with leashed fire.

That was the prince she fell in love with.

In his mind, the image of her became far less fragile and regained the fierce beauty that made her his ideal match.

Liliana loved seeing herself through his eyes.

The image in his mind shifted suddenly. Where her thick, wavy dark hair had lain, brilliant red tresses bloomed across the white pillow. Her midnight blue eyes with thick black lashes were replaced with cornflower blue and pale. Juliette looked up at Sean from the hospital bed where Liliana had been a moment before.

Sean stiffened and pulled back. He rubbed his eyes and shook his head, fighting to clear the vision he knew to be false.

This was why they had been apart so long. Her prince was helpless to fight the obsession slowly eroding his will. Every time they got close, every time he kissed her, the image of Juliette invaded his mind.

Wait. That was it. That was important. "My prince!"

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to …"

Liliana waved that away with her hand. "I already know you fight an enemy within. But I think I have discovered something. This curse that Adelind put on you was activated when you kissed Juliette!"

"Oddly enough, I believe I had already figured that out." Irony twisted the dark prince's lips, touched with amusement at her unusual way of thinking. No one else perplexed him like his little spider. In his mind, the image of Juliette vanished, and he again saw only her.

Liliana noted that as well. It, too, was important. This was why her prince had given her permission to watch his mind as the curse progressed. "You see Juliette every time you kiss me. Kissing is part of the curse."

He thought about that for a moment. He remembered various times over the last few weeks when Juliette's image had invaded his brain, and moments when he had kissed Liliana. They were the same. "It's an easy theory to test." He leaned down and kissed Liliana again.

Immediately, she became Juliette.

He shook his head. "It looks like you were right." His shoulders slumped in resignation. This meant that the only way to hold the curse at bay was to stop kissing Liliana.

That thought didn't exactly thrill her either, but at least it was knowledge they could use. "I think I have another weapon for you, my prince."

He looked at her, but still saw Juliette. He closed his eyes to shut out the image, but it was in his mind, not in reality. Even closing his eyes wouldn't shut it away. "I don't know how much longer I can fight this."

"Tell me why you love me."

He looked at her, but didn't see her. He closed his eyes again, fighting the illusion the only way he knew how. "I don't understand." His jaws clenched again so hard they must hurt. He tried to force the image of Juliette from his mind with pure will, but it wouldn't leave.

"Why me?" Liliana asked him. "Why did you give your heart to me, in particular?"

She saw pain pierce him like a knife. "Do you doubt me?" he asked, voice flat as it always was when his emotions threatened to overwhelm him.

"Not for a second, my prince. I mean the question exactly as I asked. Tell me what it is about me that makes me special to you."

He fought to think through the battle going on inside him. He thought about the first time he met Liliana, how she calmly reasoned with him with his gun pointed between her eyes. She asked him bluntly about reapers and the Grimm, with perfect honesty and no hidden agenda. The first time he kissed her, she pulled away from him because he hadn't kissed her for the right reasons. She fought Tray Kramer, the formidable lowan who would have been king if she had not beheaded him with a single stroke. He thought about how breathtaking she had looked the night he took her on their first official date. He remembered the moment when a blade he could not defend against came straight at his face, and her arm blade deflected it, and when she leapt into his arms and kissed him frantically after he threw the mauvais dente who threatened her out the window. "There are a lot of things about you that are special to me."

Liliana smiled. "Look at me now, my prince."

He opened his eyes cautiously, but he saw her true face, not the illusion of another woman. The tension between his shoulders relaxed a little. Relief flooded his face and his mind as he came to the same realization she had. "If I think of reasons why you are unique, then I see only you."

Liliana pulled him down to her, but he resisted. "Do not kiss me. There are other ways to be close."

He trusted her, let her guide him down. She kissed his forehead and they both waited a moment. Nothing happened.

"Kiss me, but not on the lips," she said.

He pressed his lips gently to her temple, just above her second eyes.

No illusions spoiled the rare moment of tenderness from her iron-willed prince.

He slipped one arm under her shoulders and rested the other around her waist, cradling her gently as he trailed increasingly passionate kisses down her cheek to her jaw and on down her throat.

Liliana lifted her chin to give him more access. She giggled a little. "If you keep going, the nurses might throw you out."

He growled a little in frustration, but stopped at her collarbone. "I've finally discovered a way to get close to you without that damn curse ruining it. I am not inclined to be patient." He pulled his arms closer around her, rested his head just under her chin, and sighed. It was partly a sigh of frustration and partly one of relief, perhaps even contentment.

She held his head tight to her chest and rubbed her cheek against his thick dark hair. It felt so very good to hold him. The curse was not beaten, but they had found a way to keep it at bay for the moment.

Liliana's eyes tried to droop closed. She fought against sleep. "The killer still wants me and my family dead. Matthew is in grave danger. My sister and her daughter will become targets, too, the moment they land. And Daniel and his family ..."

"Leona is just down the hall with an officer stationed outside her door. I put Daniel and Matthew Simonson into protective custody. Arel Samson, Marilyn Kramer, and little Simon left before anyone thought to stop them."

Liliana checked on Arel, Marilyn and Simon with her fourth eyes. They had already crossed the border out of Oregon. "They are far away and safe."

"Have you forgotten, little spider, that you top the killer's hit list?"

Liliana felt her cheeks warm. She had forgotten, after she just promised Sean to be more careful with her own life.

Sean chuckled against her chest. "I stationed an officer outside your door as well."

Liliana remembered visions she had seen of men in uniforms attacking Daniel inside the police station. "I do not trust all of your officers."

He lifted his head and smiled down on her. "I believe this is one that you trust. He volunteered."

Liliana smiled back sleepily as she looked with her fourth eyes and saw Nick, sitting just outside her door, watching over her. "Our Grimm will need rest if he is to find the killer. I trust Officer Wu and Hank, too."

"They both volunteered as well. They're taking it in turns, so you'll always have a fresh guardian," he promised her, and snuggled back against her chest. It wasn't perfect. The position was probably even a bit uncomfortable for him, but it still pleased them both to finally be close again.

She saw in his mind that he didn't intend to leave her side. "Daniel is still in danger, even in police custody ..."

Sean squeezed her gently. "Shhh. Sleep. I left more than one guardian with the lowan king and your kinsman. They're safe."

Liliana relaxed as she saw the priest that accompanied Daniel and Matthew. He was the one who killed Leo Taymore. She did not know his particular race of wesen, but she knew anyone who crossed the soft-spoken man would likely not live long enough to regret it.

"You feel so warm," she murmured. She breathed in his scent of gunpowder and cologne and stopped fighting.

A murderer still wanted her and everyone dear to her dead, but with her prince beside her, and her favorite Grimm just outside, nothing too bad could happen. Could it?


	8. Spiders Heal Fast

Spiders Heal Fast

When Liliana woke again, bright light streamed through a window she hadn't noticed the night before, and she was alone in the room that smelled like rubbing alcohol. The liquid flowing into her arm was clear now, no longer the deep red of donated blood. She read the label on the plastic bag and discovered it was saline flowing into her arm, salt and water.

That seemed quite silly to her. Liliana was fully capable of drinking water and eating salt. It didn't need to be pumped directly into her arm. She sat up, feeling reasonably herself, and limped to the bathroom. Her thigh still ached, and wasn't too keen on taking her full weight. Aside from that, she felt fine.

Spinnesehen heal fast.

The main discomfort she felt right then was hunger.

Liliana checked to see who guarded her. Nick sat outside her door on an uncomfortable-looking little chair, in the same place he had been when she woke in the wee hours of the night. She followed that chair back in time and saw Officer Wu relieve Nick, and Hank, in his turn, relieve Wu. She smiled. Her friends took good care of her. Nick had taken over guarding her again from Hank only a few minutes ago.

Hank stood beside him with a coffee in hand, and chatted with him about the case. They had traced the license plate Liliana supplied in the alley for the car Jason's murderer had driven. It belonged to a car stolen in Tillamook and later found abandoned there, scrubbed clean. If Liliana hadn't "seen" it in that alley where Jason was murdered, there would have been no way to know that it had ever been to Portland.

She wondered where Sean was. She looked for him with her fourth eyes. He was driving to the airport already. It must be early afternoon, nearly time for her sister's plane to land. She had slept a long time. That happened sometimes when she was ill or injured. Her body simply shut down until repairs had been made.

A cheery nurse came in and asked her, "How are we feeling today?" She touched Liliana's wrist, ran an instrument across her forehead, and squeezed her arm with a pressure cuff.

"I feel hungry. You feel like flirting with the dark, handsome detective. You wonder if he is married and if he would be offended if you gave him your phone number."

The nurse stopped her efficient checking of Liliana's vitals, and stared at her, blinking. "How did you …?"

"I am a seer. I have a business called Anna Sees All." Liliana shrugged. "Detective Hank is a good man. He is single, and he would not mind if you gave him your phone number. He was watching your behind when you came in."

"Really?" the nurse said, hopefully. "Are you sure about the single part?"

"I am certain. Hank is my friend." Liliana's belly rumbled insistently. "I am hungry. Can I get food soon?" Liliana asked.

She did a quick look forward in time to make sure the cheery nurse wouldn't try to knife Hank in his sleep, or poison him with cookies. The nurse was fine, not psychotic or anything. Hank would date her for a while, then completely forget her birthday while working on a case, and she would break up with him. Hank just didn't have the best luck with women.

The nurse grinned wide. "Sure thing, honey. I'll have the kitchen send some lunch right up."

"What time is it?"

"About 1:30. You missed the regular lunch run, but the kitchen hasn't shut down yet."

Liliana fretted a little while waiting for food to come. Liliana's sister Isabella and her daughter Ariadne would see their new home for the first time while she was not there. She had cleaned the little mini apartment as well as she had been able, but Isabella could be very picky. She wished she had had a chance to give it another good dusting and maybe burn a candle with a nice scent. Isabella liked cinnamon. Liliana remembered that.

She had not seen Isabella in decades. Ariadne had been just a little girl. Now, she was nearly grown, but dealing with severe mental problems from the opening of her fourth eyes. Liliana remembered having the same problems. She wanted to help her niece, and she wanted her sister to stay for a long time.

Liliana had neglected her family for too long, and lost too much.

She checked on the tall, powerful blond lowan with her father's face. Mathew, Daniel and the guardian priest played cards in a hotel room with two uniformed officers that Liliana did not recognize. They seemed safe enough, if a bit bored. Empty pizza boxes testified to their just consumed lunch.

Liliana moved into the future, watching for danger. It came in the form of two more uniformed officers who relieved the ones on duty. Liliana recognized their faces, though she had never met them. In a future that didn't happen because of the attack on Daniel's home, those two officers had killed Daniel at the police station after Nick and Hank arrested him.

The officers were both lowan. They were both armed with guns. And they were both enemies.

Liliana searched the hotel room they were in for a clock. She needed to know when the danger would come. Finally, she found one next to a bed, a digital alarm clock that read 6:14 PM while the nice officers bid their good-byes and the dangerous ones settled in.

Liliana would have to leave the hospital soon in order to help.

Her lunch showed up in the hands of the perky nurse. While the nurse set the food down on the rolling table tray that went over the bed, Liliana checked on Leona in the hospital room down the hall. The young lioness read a magazine with a bored expression on her face. Her shoulder was covered in bandages and clear saline dripped into her arm just as it did in Liliana's.

Liliana followed her forward a few days until Leona would leave the hospital. Nothing dangerous happened to her. It seemed that Leona was not on the list of the killer's targets.

That made Liliana cock her head to one side, wondering, as she chewed the food she barely tasted. The killer had wanted Liliana, Matthew, Marilyn, little Simon and Daniel dead badly enough to burn the entire house down around them, not caring that the Grimm, David Clark, Leona and Hank would die with them. Their enemy specifically only wanted Liliana, her king and her blood relatives dead, but was brutal enough not to care if others died, too.

Why?

That was the key question. Liliana still had no clue.

If all blood relatives of Liliana's were targets, that meant that Isabella and Ariadne would be in danger the moment their plane's wheels touched ground. Liliana had claimed the prince as her life mate. Did that make him a target, too?

Liliana followed Sean Renard, just arriving at the airport and searching for a space in the crowded parking garage, forward in time. She saw him pick up Isabella and Ari, help them with their luggage, escort them back to the car, get in, start the car. All three died in a fiery explosion.

The tape on her arm hurt as she ripped it off. She stuffed a paper napkin in the crook of her arm to stop the bleeding as she yanked the IV out of her arm.

She had to go now!

But how would she get to them in time?

Liliana could not think clearly through the images of flames and death that consumed the people dearest to her.

She wore one of those ridiculous hospital gowns that tied in the back. She opened the door to her room and found Hank still there, flirting with the perky nurse, and Nick sitting in the chair by her door.

"Nick!" She grabbed him by the collar and practically dragged him back into the room, slamming the door behind her. She saw Hank's eyes go wide, but he continued chatting with the pretty nurse, keeping her distracted.

Liliana would thank him later.

"What is it, Lilly? Why aren't you in bed?"

"My entire family is about to be killed. Bed is not where I need to be. I need clothes."

Nick opened a cabinet and pulled out a leotard, and one of Liliana's homemade blouse and skirt sets. "The Captain had me swing by your house this morning and get these. Is there something going on with you and him?"

"Now is not the time for that discussion, Nick." Liliana untied the hospital gown and dropped it at her feet. She wasn't wearing anything underneath. It was a very effective distraction.

Nick blushed and turned around.

"There is a bomb in your captain's car," Liliana told him.

"What?" He turned back around, saw her putting on a leotard, still bare-chested, and turned away again.

"He is picking up my sister and her daughter at the airport. They will all die within minutes."

Nick turned fully back around. With the leotard on, she was reasonably descent, and she gave him enough to think about that watching her pull on a skirt and blouse didn't make him blush again.

"And the police officers who will begin guarding my nephew and the lowan king at 6:14 tonight are both enemies sent to kill my king and my family."

Nick swallowed. "One problem at a time." He pulled his phone out and called Sean Renard's number. "It went straight to voice mail."

"He was up worried about me most of the night. He did not remember to recharge his battery."

"He has a radio in his car. I could call dispatch."

"The bomb is in his car," Liliana reminded him. "Sean has already gotten out of his car. He is in the airport helping Isabella and Ariadne with their luggage. If he gets back into the car, he will die."

Nick dialed frantically, first directory service to get a number, then the airport. "This is Detective Nick Burkhardt of the Portland PD. This is an emergency. I need you to page Captain Renard. He's in the baggage claim area. No, don't put me on hold! Damn it."

Liliana watched Sean, Liliana and Ariadne with her fourth eyes.

Ariadne became increasingly agitated. There were a lot of people bustling around. Some of them even bumped into her. Isabella tried to keep her daughter close, and Sean helped by using his bulk to block access to the adolescent girl.

That simple movement changed Isabella's cold eyes to warm. Nothing would win Liliana's sister's heart faster than protecting her daughter.

But Isabella's expression turned to one of embarrassment as Ariadne wailed wordlessly and sat down in the middle of the crowd trying to get through the exit doors. She refused to go through. Isabella tried to coax her.

Sean simply waited, patiently, holding a large suitcase that probably belonged to Isabella, and blocking the flow of people from running over the slender girl with the wild hair and eyes sitting in front of the door.

"Fire!" Ariadne said. "Death." She sat on the floor and rocked, hugging herself.

Fortunately, there were several other doors. People flowed around them, some making rude remarks to Sean or Isabella.

Ariadne became increasingly agitated as Isabella tried more and more forcibly to get her daughter to leave the airport.

"Noooo!" Ariadne wailed, shaking her long hair wildly, eyes looking in four different directions. She sat on the floor obstinately and fought her mother who tried to get her to stand up.

"Ari, do you see?" Liliana wondered. "Do you see the danger?"

The girl stilled suddenly and nodded.

"Oh, Ari, you see me, don't you?" Liliana waved.

Ariadne waved an arm in the airport.

"Thank goodness. Your mother just thinks you're having trouble with too many visions and people, and the overload from travel. She doesn't understand and probably won't listen. Tell Sean: Bomb. He'll listen."

Ariadne's head cocked sideways in a gesture Liliana had seen in the mirror a hundred times. Confusion. "The tall dark-haired man who is holding your mother's suitcase. Tell him: Bomb in car. Can you do that? He'll know what to do. He'll make it all right. No one will die. I promise. All you have to do is tell him."

Ariadne got up off the floor, faced Sean, and said, "Aunt Lilly says to tell you, Bomb in car."

Isabella stood in shock, her hand over her mouth. "Ari, you haven't said that many words in years."

She hugged her daughter.

Ariadne squirmed until she faced Sean. "Make it all right."

Isabella finally had the presence of mind to look forward in time with her own fourth eyes. "She's right," she told Sean. "There's a bomb in your car." She hugged her child tighter. "I'm sorry, Ari. I should have listened."

Sean pulled out his cell from his pocket, but his battery was dead. He set the suitcase down and caught a passing businessman by the arm. "This is an emergency." He showed his badge. "I need to borrow your phone."

The businessman handed his phone over reluctantly.

"This is Captain Renard. I need a bomb disposal team dispatched immediately to the parking garage at PDX. Send additional transport and a protective detail and coordinate with airport authorities." On the other end of the phone, someone asked where the bomb was. "In my car," Sean answered and gave the make, model and plate number along with a description of where it was parked.

Liliana sighed in relief. "See, Ari, I told you he would make it all right."

In the airport miles away, Liliana's niece smiled.

"What happened?" Nick asked.

"Your captain and my family are safe. You and Hank should take me to the airport, now. Your captain will need a ride, as will my sister and niece. Then we must rescue Daniel and Matthew."

"We?" Nick said. "You should get back in your hospital bed."

Hank opened the hospital room door and poked his head in. "I just got a call. We caught a break. The lady sniper who took a shot at you got pulled over for speeding, about the time that APB went out on her. She's in custody."

Nick's jaw tightened and his blue eyes hardened. "I've got a few questions I'd like to ask her."

"You two must go now. Don't worry about Leona. She is in no danger as long as she is not with me, my family, or her father. She is not a target."

"What about you?" Nick asked.

Liliana's own jaws tightened hard. Someone wanted her and everyone she cared about dead. "I am not going to be a sitting duck. I am going after the one who put a bomb in Sean's car."

"How will you find him?" Hank asked.

"The bomb would have gone off as soon as Sean and my family got in it. They never went near it, so the bomb did not go off."

Nick's eyes widened. "Remote controlled by someone within line of sight of the car."

"Line of sight." Liliana smiled. "Go ahead. I will meet you downstairs in just a moment."

Nick and Hank smiled and left.

Liliana focused her fourth eyes on Sean's car, then turned her vision outward, as if she were standing at his car looking all around. She spotted the man with the small remote in his hand, sitting in his own car several slots down, waiting.

She dialed the handy phone that Sean had given her.

The businessman's phone in the airport rang.

Sean handed it back to him.

The businessman said, "Hello?"

"Give the phone back to the police captain."

"It's for you," the businessman said, and handed the phone back to Sean.

Sean put the phone to his ear with a raised eyebrow. "Renard."

"I am glad you are safe, my prince. Tell Ari she is wonderful!"

"Ah, Liliana. I should have known." He turned to the girl huddled in her mother's arms. "Ari, your aunt says you are wonderful."

Ari smiled into her mother's chest.

Liliana told him where the man with the remote control was and got off the phone, so he could direct his men and the airport guards to catch the man who had tried to kill them.

One problem solved.

Liliana opened the window, attached a line and measured out enough for the four floors it would take to get to ground level. She knew the nurses and doctors would try to stop her if she went out the door.

Her perky nurse came in just as Liliana swung her legs out. Liliana waved. "Thank you for lunch." And dropped.

Nick and Hank pulled up the curb in front just as Lilliana rapelled down the building, carefully favoring her injured leg.

"I have a few questions for this sniper as well," Liliana said as she got in the back seat.


	9. Interrogation

Interrogation

Liliana called Sean on the businessman's phone on the way to the airport. The man glanced at the phone, saw the number, sighed, and handed it to Sean. "It's for you."

"Renard," he answered, as if the phone were his.

"The sniper who tried to shoot Nick has been caught."

Sean smiled, and if her prince had not been hers, that smile would have made the fine hair stand up on her arms. "Airport police have apprehended the would-be bomber."

Liliana smiled back, showing fangs. "Nick, Hank and I are coming to get you. I will speak with the man who would have killed you and Isabella and Ari. There are questions I would ask him."

Sean shook his head. "Come take your sister and niece home. I'll handle the rest."

Liliana shook her head right back, even though she knew he couldn't see her. "Isabella and Ariadne are safer with you. They will be unprotected at my house. I will join you soon."

Sean considered for a moment. "I'll put all three of you under protective custody."

"I trust you. I trust Nick and Hank and Wu. No one else," Liliana told him. "And you have work to do. My sister, my niece and I will stay at your side."

"Liliana, ..." His jaw was hard. He intended to argue with her, perhaps even order her, as if she were one of his police officers.

She would not take his orders this time. "The two officers who will take over protective custody of Mathew and Daniel at 6:14 today will be lowans who intend to kill them," she told him.

Sean had already taken a breath to argue with her. He paused. "You're certain?"

Liliana shrugged. "I saw them."

Sean sighed and rubbed his hand across his face. "Put Berkhardt on the phone."

Liliana handed her phone to Nick in the front passenger seat, and kept her fourth eyes on her sister, her niece and her mate.

"Berkhardt."

"You know about Liliana's abilities?" Sean asked him.

"I was standing right there, trying to get through to airport security when she figured out a way to keep you from getting into a car with a bomb in it without even using a phone."

Sean nodded. "After you drop Liliana off here, I want you and Griffon to interrogate the sniper." Sean looked at his watch. It was 2:57. "Have Wu meet me at the safe house in two hours. Tell Wu to hand pick three men he trusts completely, and tell no one else what he's doing."

"Yes, sir," Nick said. "Hank and I will wrap up the sniper interrogation as soon as possible and meet you there before six."

"Don't be late." Sean started to hang up, then stopped. The business man was now sitting on his rolling suitcase. He no longer even showed any great desire to leave. What he was watching was probably more interesting than any show on hotel cable, anyway. "One more thing," Sean said.

"Sir?"

"Tell Wu to bring my shotgun."

"Yes, sir."

Twenty minutes later, Liliana, her sister and niece and her prince all sat in a small room with a nervous-looking man in handcuffs. A young woman with TSA on a patch on her shoulder stood by the door.

"Why did you plant a bomb in my car?" Sean asked the man.

"I don't have to tell you anything," the man said. "I know my rights."

The TSA woman said, "You planted a bomb near an airport. You fall under homeland security's jurisdiction. Your rights are a bit different here." The woman couldn't be older than twenty-five, but her eyes had a hardness that seemed much older. She had a thick, short black ponytail and a jagged scar under her chin. Liliana looked curiously into her past and saw many of the same things she had seen in Mathew's past, sand and blood, homemade bombs and bullets from nowhere. She had been a soldier.

The handcuffed man swallowed nervously, but did not answer Sean's question.

"Who are you working for?" Sean asked, leaning over the small table, looming over the man.

The man looked down at his hands and said nothing.

Liliana looked inside his mind with her third eyes. "He does not know the man who hired him. The transaction was made entirely by phone."

Isabella added, "He was even paid electronically."

Ari, sitting in the corner curled in a little ball, got into the spirit of things and added, "His mother drank too much."

Sean looked over his shoulder at the three spinnesehen and laughed. "I should put you three on the payroll."

The TSA woman looked confused.

"They're psychics. It runs in their family," Sean told her. "Makes interrogation a lot easier." He turned back to the even more nervous man. "How was the hit set up?"

The man bit his lip, said nothing, but looked at the three spinnesehen expectantly.

Liliana smiled wide and said, "He got the job through an intermediary, a man he had dealt with before for overseas hits, so our enemy is not American. He got paid half in advance by electronic transfer, and was told to wait until the call came, and act immediately. He planted the bomb after the car was parked at the airport. He didn't get the call until Sean had nearly arrived."

"He wasn't even told how, who, or when he would kill, only to have a long rifle, a pistol and a bomb with a remote all handy. He had gasoline in his trunk as well, and poison. He wasn't even told how many people he would kill." Isabella's lips twisted in disdain. "Marnassier would never have accepted such an undefined hit."

Ari added, "He masturbated while he waited to push the button."

Liliana tilted her head to one side. "That is unusual."

"Masturbating while you're waiting to kill someone?" the TSA woman said with disgusted horror. "I should hope so."

Liliana shook her head and waved that away as an unimportant detail. "Not knowing the manner or target of a hit until the last moment. That is why we could not foresee it until it was almost too late."

Isabella looked thoughtful. "If the enemy changed plans based on our actions, reacting moment by moment, …"

Sean nodded understanding. "That would interfere with your ability to foresee his actions, wouldn't it?"

"The attack on the house yesterday was also not planned in advance," Liliana said. "The future shifted in the moments after you left and Nick arrived. Someone must have had the people who attacked us waiting nearby, and called them when they saw an opportunity."

Isabella's beautiful face hardened until it looked like it was carved from cold stone. "They know our strengths and weaknesses. This enemy has killed our kind before." She pulled her daughter's head close to her thigh and stroked her hair.

"Most people think we are all extinct. No one has targeted us specifically since …" Liliana stopped speaking. She didn't want to even think about that time.

Isabella finished for her with ice in her voice. "Since the verrat hunted down our mother, father, brothers, sister, and all their children."

Liliana swallowed and hugged herself. "Isabella and Marnassier and their sons stayed hidden in a remote cabin in Siberia for a decade. They were the only ones of our kind on that continent to survive."

Sean put a strong arm around Liliana's shoulders. "I won't let anything happen to you, little spider. Or your family." He nodded to Isabella when he said that.

Isabella looked at Sean, eyes narrowed. "You threw Marnassier out a window to protect my sister."

Sean straightened his back and faced her squarely. He didn't seem sure if she was pleased about that, or angry about it. "Yes."

Isabella's lips twisted into a small ironic smile. "It is a shame that my sister lives on the ground floor."

Sean's lips twitched in his amused smile and his shoulders lost tension. "We'll stop them. The verrat has no power here."

"Who are the verrat?" the TSA woman asked.

"A powerful underground organization that doesn't care for people of mixed race, among other things," Sean told her. "Somewhat like the Aryan brotherhood, but with European accents."

"Your mother was Lakota," Ari said to the floor.

The TSA woman smiled. "Yeah. I don't think these verrat would like me much either. How can I help?"


	10. Dead Reckoning

Dead Reckoning

Dead Reckoning

Sgt. Wu met his captain and his entourage of spider women a block from the hotel where Daniel and Matthew were being held in protective custody.

Sean said, "Stay in the car." He said it very firmly, and with an authoritative assumption that he would be obeyed.

Isabella looked at Liliana. "Is he always so bossy?"

"Always," Liliana confirmed.

All three spiders ignored Sean's command and got out of the car. Ariadne immediately climbed on the trunk and crouched, all eight eyes rolling in random directions.

Sean sighed, but didn't make an issue of it. With Liliana, he had learned to pick his battles.

Wu handed over the captain's shotgun. "Sir, we haven't seen any sign of anything out of the ordinary. I did a radio check-in with the custodial officers a few minutes ago. They gave the all's well."

Renard nodded. "I've got reason to believe that the men coming for the next shift may be dirty. So, aside from normal check-ins, I don't want anything going over the radio about you or I being here."

Wu glanced at Liliana. "You take advice from psychics now?"

Renard's eyes hardened. "Since when do you question my information sources?"

Wu held up his hands placatingly. "Not that there's anything wrong with psychics, especially not frighteningly accurate ones like Lilly."

"The captain is protecting us," Liliana said. "A killer tried to blow up my sister and my niece."

"That explains the shotgun," Wu said. "Is everyone all right?"

"My niece, Ariadne, saw it in time and gave a warning." Liliana gestured to her niece who was currently crouched on the back of the borrowed squad car, almost flat, face against the glass as if she were trying to see inside.

She looked up suddenly as Wu's attention turned to her, and said urgently, "Don't eat that cookie!"

"What is it with you people and cookies?" Wu said, face puzzled.

"Too late, Ari," Liliana told the girl. "That danger is in the past. You've wandered backward a few months."

Ari tilted her head and her eyes rolled wildly, but she didn't say anything else.

"Umm," Wu raised his eyebrows.

"What?" Captain Renard said flatly. "What else did you need to say that was more important than coordination orders?"

Wu snapped his attention back to his captain and his back stiffened. "Nothing, sir."

"Fine. We don't know a lot about this killer, but we know that the targets are all Liliana's family."

Wu looked confused again. "Thor and Mr. T in there are Liliana's family?"

"Thor and Mr. T?" Liliana did not understand.

Sean's jaw muscles jumped. "Yes. Liliana counts both Matthew Simonson and Daniel Samson as family. Apparently, so do the people trying to kill them."

"And I thought MY house looked like the UN around holidays. So, how do you want to handle this, sir?"

Liliana saw in Sean's mind that he was considering multiple possibilities. In seconds, he considered a dozen ways to direct his men, seeking to get the maximum chance of catching the dirty cops in the act without any of his people getting hurt or killed. "We need to be inside with Daniel and Matthew," she told him.

"Why?" Sean asked.

"Either Daniel or Matthew will die unless someone armed is inside the apartment with them."

"I'll assign one of my men."

"I do not trust your men. I will go inside with them."

Sean's jaw hardened. "Liliana, I don't want you in the middle of this."

"My family is threatened. I am already in the middle."

Sean shook his head. He put a hand on her arm, face hard and determined. "Liliana …"

"I am not one of your men, Sean Renard, and I did not ask you to tell me what to do. I am going inside."

"I could have you arrested."

"I do not think that would be wise." Liliana didn't pop out her arm blades in front of Wu, but her fists clenched hard. Isabella came up beside her, eyes narrow. Ariadne hopped down from the back of the car, and stood beside her mother. About half of her eyes managed to focus on Sean.

Faced with three determined spiders, Sean sighed, ran a hand over his face, and Liliana saw his mind shift to new strategies that included LIliana inside the apartment with Daniel and Mathew.

Liliana touched his hand. "I know you are trying to help. But I cannot sit on the sidelines and watch this time. I have done too much of that already."

Sean still didn't look happy, but he squeezed her hand. "I'll go in with you."

The thought of Sean being in the center disturbed her deeply. She couldn't very well protest after just insisting that she, herself, had to be there.

"Wu, keep your men back far enough that you won't be spotted. When I call, move in fast, and assume our men are hostile unless I say otherwise." He gave detailed instructions on lines of fire, access paths and covering escape routes.

"Yes, sir." Wu led the three men with him to concealment. Liliana recognized one of them from the pride.

Sean led Liliana by the hand to the hotel suite, his shotgun in the other hand. Isabella and Ariadne followed.

He looked back at them. Liliana saw him consider saying something, and just let it go as pointless.

Daniel, Mathew, and the two officers guarding them were all very surprised to find the captain and the three spider sisters on their doorstep.

The hotel suite consisted of a kitchenette combined with a dining room and living room. A folding card table filled most of the space with four men around it. Three doors led off from the central room. One to a bathroom. The other two to bedrooms. There was no other exit. The only window big enough to go in or come out was the large window in the living room right by the front door.

The captain told his men to simply carry on playing cards as if they weren't there, and to say nothing about himself and the three women to the officers coming to relieve them shortly.

Sean and the three spiders settled in one of the two bedrooms and did their best to be silent.

Waiting and watching came naturally to the spiders. Isabella sat in an office chair at a little desk, picked up a pen and idly doodled on the hotel stationery. Her fourth eyes were open, and Liliana knew she watched the front door of the hotel. Ariadne sat in a little ball under the desk, head on her mother's knee. Her mind wandering through all manner of places and times.

Liliana and Sean sat on the ugly brown bedspread on the bed facing the door, Sean with his shotgun in hand.

Liliana's phone rang. She handed it to Sean. "It is Nick." She watched Nick with her fourth eyes while he talked to Sean.

"Renard," Sean answered the phone.

"The sniper was willing to cop a plea and tell us whatever we wanted to know, but we didn't get much out of her. She got the job through an intermediary, and didn't even know who the target was, or where, until the last minute. She got her instructions by phone."

Sean nodded. "Not surprised. Did she mention a foreign accent?"

Nick's brows raised black brows. "As a matter of fact, yeah. She said the guy sounded French."

Sean's eyes flattened to gray. "Anything else?"

"Forensics got back to us with prints. The ones on the glasses and the watch are Daniel Samson's, which we expected. But we got a couple partials off the zip ties used to tie Jason Simonson's hands. They didn't match either Jason's or Daniel's. And neither did the blood type of the blood under his fingernails."

Renard nodded. "Good work. Coordinate with Wu and get to the safe house as soon as possible. We may need you and Hank."

"On our way."

Sean hung up, but kept Liliana's phone. He would need it to call Wu.

Silence hung heavy. The digital clock by the bed said 6:09.

"I wish you were somewhere safe," Sean said softly, low voice down to a murmur.

"Nowhere is safe, my prince. I am with you, and that is where I wish to be."

Sean brought her slender hand to his lips and pressed them against her knuckles, eyes closing for a moment. "Remember what you promised me, little spider. Don't take chances with your life."

Liliana tried to look forward, but everything was in flux. Nothing was clear. "I keep my promises," she whispered. "But I will not let any member of my family die to save myself."

His face said that he was not happy about that, and his mind agreed, but his heart swelled with admiration for her. Sean put a strong arm around her shoulders, pulled her close and kissed her dark hair. "I wouldn't expect you to."

6:14 came and went, and 6:15 and 6:16. The traitor lowan police didn't show up. Flickers and blurs were all she could see. More flux. Something significant was changing in that moment, and their futures were changing with it. "The future has shifted," Liliana said. "If our presence was unknown, they would have been here by now."

Isabella jumped to her feet. "They're here!"

"No, no, no!" Ariadne said. "They're all around. All around. Death all around."

Liliana stood just as a loud bang announced the front door of the hotel suite being kicked open.

Gunshots rang out in the room where Mathew, Daniel and the two police officers played cards.

Liliana burst out of the room, arm blades out with Sean's shotgun barrel over her shoulder, as they rushed through the bedroom door. Isabella raced behind them, and Ariadne behind her.

Two lowans in police uniforms with pistols shot the two officers who had been guarding Daniel and Mathew.

One of the protecting officers was already falling dead to the floor with two bullet holes in his chest, as Liliana and Sean burst into the room. The other officer got off a single shot, clipping one of the lowans in the arm before he, too, went down.

Daniel and Mathew ducked and tipped the table up to put it between them and their attackers, spilling cards and pocket change all over the cheap carpet.

Sean opened fire on the lowan on the right. His shotgun blast in center mass knocked the uniformed lion back out the door.

Liliana jumped, planted her left foot on Mathew's crouched shoulder, and launched herself over the edge of the upended table into the startled face of the wounded lowan on the left. Liliana's arm blade split his face and head in half.

She landed on her feet, as the lowan traitor fell dead, but stumbled and went down. Her right leg didn't hold when she landed. Pain burned through her thigh. She would have difficulty getting up again without help. She felt the warmth of blood, not a huge gush, but a trickle. She had reopened the gunshot wound in her thigh. It didn't matter. Her enemies were dead. She could go home and heal soon.

Sean used Liliana's phone. "Wu, move in. Situation is under control, but we've got officers down." He checked the pulse on the second protector to fall. "One still breathing. Get an ambulance to the safe house immediately."

"But, sir, we're miles away from the safe house, headed toward the address you gave us."

Sean blinked. "You're what?"

"We're going to the address where you ordered us to go ten minutes ago."

"I didn't give that order."

"I did." A lowan stood in the doorway where the two dead attackers had been a moment before. Liliana recognized the lowan who towered over her. Vic Rockford, the leader of the lowans of Tillamook. "Wu, it's Renard," Rockford mimicked, holding an imaginary phone. "We're in the wrong place."

It was a passable imitation. Liliana would have had trouble telling the difference without her eyes to help.

Rockford had initially opposed Daniel. He had been a Tray Kramer supporter, but many of Kramer's supporters had been won over by Daniel's wisdom and fairness. Liliana remembered feeling relieved that Rockford hadn't challenged Daniel. While the dark-skinned, bald lowan wasn't much bigger than Nick, he would have been at least as hard to defeat in single combat, if not harder. He had won his leadership in the ring.

Liliana looked into him, and saw hatred. Much like her prince, Vic Rockford lived his life controlling his face, his emotions, even his thoughts, but under the surface, he was filled with contempt for "lesser" wesen, meaning anyone who wasn't a lowan, and most powerfully of all, hate for those of mixed blood.

To Vic, with the exception of Daniel, everyone in that room looked like something that should never have been born. His mind was filled with revulsion, just looking at them. She caught a glimpse in his mind of David Clark, the lowan with blutbad ancestry, and a strong note of satisfaction.

"David Clark's death was not incidental. He was a target, too," Liliana said. "You weren't just trying to kill my family. You were targeting anyone associated with the pride who was not 'pure.'"

"The blood of abominations like you should never have been mixed with the blood of lions."

The sound of Sean's shotgun pumping sounded loud in the quiet room. "You're under arrest," he said, pointing the gun at Rockford's chest.

The dark lowan chuckled. "I don't think so, your highness." He said the last with a sarcastic bow, and casually aimed a pistol at Liliana's head. "Put the gun down, unless you want me to paint your pretty little crossbreed's brains all over the wall."

Sean hesitated. Sean knew that Rockford intended to kill them all, anyway. He seemed to be trying to calculate if he could kill Rockford with the shotgun before the lowan could pull the trigger.

The sound of glass breaking made everyone look around. Gun barrels pointed through the front window. A hand reached through and ripped down the curtain. Three men stood just outside the hotel room, lined up to shoot them all through the window. Liliana noticed the interlocking diamond shapes on one of their palms. Verrat.

Daniel and Mathew stood and faced the new threat. The table they had been crouched behind faced the wrong way to be of any help.

Vic Rockford smiled. "You see, highness. I've got a little royal support on my side as well. The verrat and your brother share my opinions about who belongs in a lowan pride or on a throne, and what sort of scum doesn't."

Sean swallowed and slowly set his shotgun on the ground.


	11. Revolution Resolution

Revolution Resolution

Mathew Simonson's brows drew together. "Vic? I don't understand. What do you have to do with all this?"

Liliana looked up into the barrel of a gun. It was not a pleasant view. She looked past the gun to the face of the man holding it, Vic Rockford, the leader of the lions of Tillamook. "Jason Simonson never knew that he was not of pure lowan blood. He was loyal to you, and believed just as you did. He was even going to challenge Daniel, for you." She braced her hand against the door jamb and slowly, favoring her right leg, pushed up to a standing position. The gun followed her nose up.

"Jason was tainted, whether he knew it or not." Rockford's lip curled in a sneer. He looked at Mathew and shook his head. "An incredible shame. You both had such potential, if you weren't tainted by the blood of insects." He spat the last word as if it were a curse. He looked back at Liliana, and his hand tightened on the butt of the gun.

Mathew woged and growled. "YOU killed Jason." He flexed long claws. The guns pointed at him held him from diving for Rockford's throat, but they might not hold him for long. Mathew really didn't care that much if he died, as long as he could take his brother's killer with him.

Liliana looked at the man who intended to kill her. She saw his intention in his mind. He would murder her, in front of Sean. A streak of hateful contempt for royalty that was inherited, not earned, made him delight in how much seeing her die would hurt Sean. Then he would order the verrat to kill them all. She looked into the lowan revolutionary's future, and saw that he would not live long afterward. "Eric Renard did not order you to kill his brother. If you do not kill Sean, then my prince will hunt you down, and you will die. If you kill him, then Eric Renard will send someone to hunt you down, and you will die."

"Shut up!" Rockford said. "He wasn't supposed to be here. I was told that you were all in one place, and it was a good time to strike. I didn't know the prince was here, too."

Liliana smiled, showing fangs. "You believe I am a stupid insect, but even I would not have put myself in such a position." When she looked into the future, she saw something else. She just needed time, a minute, maybe two.

She looked at the three men with automatic weapons. "You are royal enforcers. You know very well the penalty for shedding royal blood without a direct order. The seven houses cannot tolerate that."

Sean picked up her theme. "This is my canton. You have no authority to act here without my permission."

The three verrat glanced to the man on the far left. He was an older hundjager, mid-forties while the others were younger, twenties perhaps. He nodded to the two younger men, and their weapons stayed firm.

Rockford saw his control over the situation slipping. "Eric sent you to me," he said to the three verrat hounds. "He told you to obey me, and arranged for the others to be under my command. He wants the lions of Oregon to answer to him, not his brother."

Rockford's gaze had shifted to the verrat, and was no longer as carefully focused on Liliana. Outside, Liliana's forth eyes showed her that the two men creeping up the stairs were nearly in place. Just a few more seconds.

Isabella looked across the room at her, and nodded slightly. She saw them, too.

Sean narrowed flint grey eyes at the three verrat hounds, "Did Eric order my death, specifically?"

The men's eyes slid away from his. Their demeanors made the answer clear.

Sean smiled, and it was as fearsome as Mathew's fangs. "I would give a great deal to see my brother's reaction when you bring him that report."

The barrels of the younger verrat's automatic weapons dipped. They swallowed nervously. Even the older hound looked uncomfortable, his certainty beginning to waver.

Rockford's gun swung away from Liliana's face to point at Sean's heart. "Fine. I'll take the responsibility. Eric despises his half breed brother. When I am the king of lions, he won't dare to challenge my decision." Liliana saw in his mind, a second before, his intention to pull the trigger.

Liliana's arm blade sliced through Rockford's wrist with surgical precision. The hand with the gun in it fell at her feet.

For a moment, Vic Rockford stared at the end of his wrist in disbelief. The slice had been so clean that the arteries closed, so there was very little blood.

Everyone froze for a moment.

Then, many things happened at once.

The massive blond lion pounced on the now unarmed man who had admitted to murdering his brother.

The verrat started to raise their weapons to shoot Mathew, probably taking Liliana and Daniel out as well, but Sean's authoritative voice boomed out. "Hold your fire!"

The verrat, trained from youth to obey royal commands, hesitated.

Vic Rockford went down with Mathew Simonson's fangs in his throat. He died with a screaming gurgle.

Hank and Nick, who had been creeping up the stairs while Liliana kept Vic Rockford talking, pointed guns at the verrat from behind. "Freeze! Put down your weapons!"

The three men still hesitated with indecision. Liliana could see their intention to turn their weapons on the two detectives. They had no intention of allowing themselves to be taken alive.

Liliana popped her arm blades out and crouched, weight all on one foot, ignoring the trickle of blood running down her leg. Isabella and Ariadne echoed her, baring arm blades. Daniel woged and growled. If the verrat turned their weapons on Nick and Hank, they would turn their vulnerable backs to the angry wesen. If they fired on the wesen, Nick and Hank would kill them.

"Hold your fire!" Sean shouted again. "Surrender your weapons." He picked up his shotgun and pointed it at the hounds.

Isabella and Ariadne flanked Sean, arm blades out and ready. Daniel's bulk dwarfed Isabella, yellow eyes and white fangs bright against the snarling face covered in black fur.

Even with automatic weapons, with two guns at their backs, and facing the formidably armed wesen and a prince with a shotgun, their chances didn't look good.

One of the verrat bowed slightly to Sean, and lowered his weapon. The other two followed suit.

Nick and Hank had them disarmed, face down and cuffed in seconds.

Mathew looked up from the dead man, eyes wild, blood dripping from his fangs.

Liliana could see the madness and despair inside him. His heart keened with grief as if killing his brother's murderer brought home the finality that his brother was truly gone.

Mathew looked up at Sean, shotgun in hand, and Nick and Hank, pistols gripped hard. He had avenged his brother. He saw no reason to go on living.

Liliana stepped in front of him. She saw a flicker with her fourth eyes, a possibility that he would toss her aside with his claws, shred her, knowing that Sean, Nick and Hank would kill him for it. That was what he wanted.

"Yesterday, you saved my life, Mathew," Liliana whispered. She sheathed her arm blades, opened her arms wide, and lifted her chin, baring her throat. "My life is yours. But neither my death nor yours will bring back our brother."

Mathew cringed. When she was armed and confronting him, he might have attacked her, but weaponless, small and vulnerable, and offering her life to him, the thought of hurting her sickened him. Images of death flashed through the lion, with Jason's face the strongest image. Agony seared through him. But the despair that went with the pain shook him even deeper. He had lost everyone he cared about. There was nothing left for him. Not even revenge. No reason to live. If he ever loved someone else, they would just die. "I can't. There's no one left …"

Liliana faced him, tiny spider before giant lion. "I am your family, Mathew. You are not alone."

Isabella came up beside her. "I see my father's face when I look at you, and my father's pain. Simon of Nemea lost his brother and every member of his pride. But Simon loved again. He loved the spider, Solifu, our mother, and they had sons as well as daughters. The lions of Nemea live again in you."

Ariadne fearlessly hugged the massive lion with blood dripping from his fangs and claws. "You can love us. We will not die."

Mathew broke down and wept, hard shuddering sobs. He dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around the adolescent girl.

Isabella hugged him, too. Liliana petted his tawny golden hair. She looked forward along his time line. He would survive. He would need a lot of help for a while, but they would give it to him without reservation. Mathew son of Simon was strong. He would survive. Eventually, he would even live and love again.

Liliana smiled as she saw an image in the future of Mathew and Leona holding a baby and laughing.

Daniel put a broad hand on Mathew's shoulder. "It's all right, boy. Let it out."

Nick left Hank covering the prisoners and came into the hotel room. "Is everyone okay?" Sirens could be heard in the distance. Finally.

Sean checked the pulse on one of the officers who had been shot. "Garcia is dead. Reynolds is still breathing. The rest of us are uninjured. Good timing, detective. See what you can do for Reynolds until the ambulance gets here."

Liliana looked up at Nick and Sean, blinking tears, and flushed with joy. Their enemy was gone, and no one she loved had died.

She smiled through the tears.

Nick smiled back at her.

Sean's face was blank, emotions hidden behind careful control, but Liliana saw past his mask to the relief and joy and anger, and the jumble of other emotions that he hid in front of his men.

She ran past Nick, who looked a little surprised. She launched herself at her mate.

Sean lowered the shotgun to his side in one hand, and braced.

When she impacted his chest, he caught her with one arm. She climbed her lover like a tree, and kissed his cheek and his neck and whatever else she could reach.

He squeezed her tight. His eyes closed, and he buried his face in her hair, inhaling deeply.

Liliana tucked her head under his chin, and burrowed into his neck. She opened her second eyes so she could watch around her without budging from there. She wasn't sure she would ever move. It didn't really matter that her reopened leg wound leaked blood on his pants and shirt. Sean didn't seem to care, and neither did she.

Nick's eyebrows about climbed into his hair.

Sean lifted his face from her hair and asked, voice carefully neutral, "You have something to say, Burkhardt?"

Nick shook his head, but his wide beaming grin broke out. "No, sir."

Sean nodded. "Keep it that way."


	12. Champions Challenge

Champion's Challenge

Three days later, Liliana stood on the deck of a ship, enjoying the cool wind in her hair, and rocking with the waves without conscious thought. It had been a long time since she felt the ocean under her feet, and that had not been a good time. This was a sad time, but the salt air smelled clean and the wounds in her heart and the hearts of her family had begun to heal.

Sean, Isabella, and Ariadne stood behind her. Daniel, Leona with her arm in a sling, and Marilyn Kramer, holding little Simon's hand, stood along the deck railing. Many of the other lowans of Tillamook, as well as humans and other wesen who had known Jason, filled the decks. Jason Simonson had been well-liked.

Several had kind words to say about the man with Liliana's brother's face and name who she had never known. She knew that her life was far poorer for that lack.

Mathew walked up to the railing last. He said a few words about his brother and how much he loved him, then poured Jason's ashes into the waves.

The others wandered away, exploring the large fishing boat that had belonged to Jason and now, belonged to Mathew. Liliana stayed at the deck railing looking out at the gentle waves of the bay. Mathew joined her.

"Jason always did love the sea," Liliana said softly.

Mathew looked at her oddly. "How did you know?"

Liliana smiled. "My brother, Jason. He always wanted to live by the sea. He loved boats and the ocean."

"Were you two close?" Mathew asked.

"When we were young, yes. After our parents and brothers died," Liliana shrugged. "My second mother held the family together for a long time. She was an extraordinary woman, a jaguar holding together a couple of angry lions and a mentally wounded spider as a family. When she died, we happened to be in Portland. We never left, but … we were never really a family after that. Isabella visited a few times, then even she drifted away."

Liliana blinked a tear. "I never even knew when my brothers died. I could look back in time now, and find them, but…" she shrugged again. "What would be the point?"

"I'm sorry," Mathew said.

Liliana chuckled through her tears. "You lost a brother," she said. "I think that I am supposed to say that."

"It sounds like you lost a brother, too."

Liliana nodded. "If I hadn't been looking for my Jason, I never would have known what happened to yours. I wish so much that I had looked sooner." For the rest of her life, Liliana knew she would regret not looking for her brother's family for all those years.

Mathew put a massive hand on her slender shoulder. "There's no point in that," he told her. "There's always something you could have done to save them, if only you had known. But you didn't know."

Liliana smiled up at the man with her father's face. "No, you didn't."

Mathew smiled ruefully. "Good advice that I should take, maybe?"

"That's what people pay me for," Liliana said with a sad smile.

They stood in silence for a while, with only the sound of the wind.

"Will you keep the boat?" Liliana asked.

Mathew shook his head, shaking blond mane in the wind. "The first mate offered to buy me out. He knows more about fishing than I ever will, and all I can think about here is Jason."

"What will you do?"

"Daniel offered me a job in his construction company." He shrugged. "I'm not sure if I'll take it. I'm not sure if he will still be willing to offer it after the challenge bout."

"You're not going to withdraw your challenge for pride king?"

Mathew's jaws tightened. "No."

Liliana nodded acceptance. "We'll make arrangements for a ring to be set up, and the challenge time and location to be announced to the pride. It will take a few days. My leg should be fully healed by then."

Mathew nodded.

"I wonder why you still wish to challenge Daniel, though."

"Jason was killed in his city. He didn't stop it. He didn't protect him. That's the pride king's job."

Liliana tilted her head to one side. "If you wish to be king because you do not feel that Daniel is doing the job well enough, there is one important question you should know the answer to."

"What question?"

"Could you have done better?"

Mathew's jaw tightened hard.

Lilliana left him to watch the waves and think, and sought the warm arms of her prince.

A few days later, Liliana faced the man with her father's face in the lowan combat ring. Daniel had led her through the crowd, with all eyes shut, into the ring, and placed a sword in her hand. She refused the shield. She had long since learned the lesson that fighting a lowan ring champion with lowan weapons and tactics would get her killed. To have any chance at all, she would have to use every advantage that her spider heritage had given her. When she opened her eyes, human and second eyes for the better peripheral vision, she focused only on Mathew. The rest of the unusually quiet lowan spectators didn't matter. Nothing mattered but her opponent.

Liliana knew that her prince watched from just outside the ring, but she ignored even him. If this turned out to be her last day, they had said what needed saying.

Daniel left them alone in the ring, and the fight officially began.

Mathew faced her, sword and shield in hand. "You're going to go through with this?" he asked her.

Fighting someone who looked like her father, and had become like a brother to her, felt so fundamentally wrong. Liliana didn't know if she could win, but she absolutely knew she didn't want to hurt Mathew.

He had saved her life, and she had saved his. They were family.

Her gut-level reluctance to hurt the big lowan probably didn't matter all that much anyway. They were both well-trained, deadly fighters. Liliana was small. Mathew was huge. She might be able to kill Mathew if she could surprise him, but she couldn't overpower him. If Mathew hit her with the sword in his hand, he would most likely cut her in half. The chance that one of them would die in this fight seemed almost certain. The chance that the one to die would be Liliana seemed very high.

"I am the king's champion. You challenged. I must answer." Liliana shrugged. "Only you can withdraw the challenge, Mathew. I cannot withdraw without forfeiting Daniel's kingship."

"You know you have no chance."

Liliana smiled, showing fangs. "They said the same thing when I faced Tray Kramer. I am more formidable than I look."

Mathew grinned back at her. "I know. I've seen."

"Did you think about the question I asked you?"

There was no confusion. Mathew knew immediately what she meant. He looked down. "I thought about it."

"And?"

Mathew's answer was a swing of the sword at her head.

Liliana ducked under the swing, using her small stature to her advantage. She lunged under his swing, and tried to touch her left wrist spinneret to Mathew's waist.

Mathew was faster than she would expect anyone that big to be. He deflected her hand with his shield before she could touch him.

That suited her just fine, with her line attached to Mathew's shield, she leapt to the side, caught a bar on the side of the cage, attached the line, then flipped straight up as high as she could.

Mathew yanked on his shield to try to free it, but the attachment to the cage was solid. He raised his sword intending to cut the line, just as Liliana landed on that taught line feet first. The tall lowan fell sideways, yanked off balance.

With his shield arm bound outstretched under him, he raised his sword to defend himself.

Liliana knocked his sword aside with hers. She started to drive her arm blade down toward Mathew's unprotected throat, and a single second of time became the most important thing in the world.

If she drove her arm down in that moment, Mathew would die just like Tray Kramer had. But Mathew was not an evil man. He was not an enemy. She hesitated, no more than the space of the sharp breath he took.

Mathew's eyes widened as he saw the threat. He yanked his left arm free of the bound shield, and the moment when she could have killed him passed.

She drove her arm blade down, knowing it would not strike its target.

The powerful lowan caught her wrist in a grip like iron, twisted hard and rolled.

Pain shot up to Liliana's elbow as she fell, helpless to do any more than curl a little so her head didn't strike the concrete.

Mathew rolled on top of her as she came down. His sword disengaged hers in the same movement, and the tables turned. His sword flew at her unprotected throat. She had hesitated, and now she would die for it.

She looked into Mathew's face as the blade came down. She could not defend. He was too fast. "Te amo, Pater," she whispered to the man with her father's face.

The blade stopped, the cold of the steel against the thin skin of her neck.

"Do you yield?" Mathew asked.

The fight was lost. Mathew's mercy meant that her hesitation would not be paid for with her own lifeblood. Instead, she had cost Daniel his kingship.

Liliana closed all of her eyes and her cheeks heated with shame. "I yield." She had failed Daniel. She had failed Leona, Marilyn and Arel, the three lionesses who had entrusted their lives and futures to her. She had failed little Simon, the lowan prince with her father's name.

Mathew stood, woged and roared. "I am the king's champion! Daniel is king, and anyone who says different must face me!" He stared all around, looking at hundreds of startled, confused faces.

One tall prince merely raised an eyebrow.

A single deep-voiced roar of laughter echoed off the cavernous walls and ceiling, stilling the growing murmurs. It was Daniel. "If you wanted the job, boy, all you had to do was ask."

Mathew grinned wide, showing a lot of fangs. "I had to prove I was the best man for it." He extended a hand to Liliana to help her up. "Or woman, of any species."

She smiled wide and took the offered hand. "Daniel is king, and Mathew Simonson is his champion!" she shouted.

Roars of approval filled the room as the pride caught up to the fact that the very man who had questioned Daniel's fitness to be king had fought for the right to defend his title. It was a powerful testimony to Daniel's ability to earn loyalty and turn enemies into allies. It would silence a great many of his critics. Mathew had just made Daniel a far more effective and powerful king.

Under cover of the noise, Liliana grinned up at Mathew. "I could have taken you, you know."

Mathew chuckled. "I know that, but they don't."

Her grin faded as she thought about how close she had come to killing him. "You could not have known that I would hesitate."

He put a big hand on her slender shoulder and squeezed gently. "I knew."

"Why did you do this, Mathew? Why did you not simply withdraw your challenge?"

"Because I thought about what you asked. I couldn't have done better, but maybe Daniel could have, if he hadn't had to spend so much of his energy fighting against divisive factions. If we had been one pride, watching each other's backs like a pride should, Jason might still be alive."

Daniel, Leona and Arel escorted Mathew out of the cage, with Liliana trailing on his heels. Most of the other lowans had scattered amidst cheerfully boisterous sounds of celebration and lively discussion. A few lowans from Tillamook stayed to slap Mathew on the back and congratulate him.

The knot of happy lions wandered a short distance away in the big warehouse leaving Liliana standing alone.

Sean Renard put his arms around her and squeezed her tightly, breathing in the scent of her hair. "I thought I was going to lose you for a moment, there."

"Mathew knew that I would not kill him," she told her prince. "I did not know that he would not kill me. But I should have."

Sean nodded agreement. "We both should have. He wouldn't fight so hard to save your life, and spare it even at his most desperate moment, just so he could kill you in the ring." He kissed the top of her head. "He has my gratitude for more than his mercy. I'm not sure how many more times I could bear to watch you risk your life like this."

Liliana smiled wistfully. She had not really liked having to fight lions on a regular basis, but she had liked being a part of a pride. Spiders were loners by nature, with the exception of their mates, but she was a lowan's daughter. Having never had a pride before, she didn't know that she would want such a thing. Now, she knew enough to miss it.

Tucked safely under her prince's arm, she approached the small knot of people around Daniel and Mathew. "He will make a good champion," she told Daniel. "It was my honor to serve you and the Oregon pride." She bowed formally. She wondered if she would ever see them again.

"That sounded suspiciously like goodbye," Daniel growled. "Don't think you're getting off that easy. Arel and I expect you over for dinner on Tuesday. Marilyn is counting on you babysitting Simon so she can go to her yoga class on Thursday, and there's a pride meeting Saturday morning at 9 AM sharp. Don't be late."

"But, I am not pride," Liliana said, confused.

Arel hugged her. "You may not be lowan, Lilly, but you will always be pride."


End file.
